Author: Aidan Turnage-Barney

At Colonial Downs on Saturday, two 4-year-olds offered impressive efforts in the $100,000 Reigh Count and the $100,000 Love Sign. In the open company, sibling dirt sprint stakes, the 2024 Illinois Derby winner Patriot Spirit proved much the best over seven rivals in the Reigh Count, while Alani took to the front early against six […]

Defending champion Nations Pride tops 30 nominated to the Arlington Million With purse money totaling $2.5 million over seven stakes, nominations closed Wednesday for the 2025 Colonial Downs Festival of Racing program. Highlighted by the Grade 1 Arlington Million, the Grade 2 $500,000 Beverly D. and the Grade 2 $500,000 Secretariat Stakes, each scheduled for […]

Trainer Rudy Brisset holds a strong hand for Saturday’s first running of the $100,000 Love Sign Stakes at Colonial Downs. The six-furlong dirt sprint attracted a competitive field of nine fillies and mares, and Brisset’s pair, led by Motley Crew Stables and September Farm’s Bourbon Breeze, was tabbed as the first and fourth choice in […]

Mellon Patch’s 2024 Illinois Derby winner Patriot Spirit is set to return to Colonial Downs as the 7-5 morning line favorite for the 1st running of the $100,000 Reigh Count Stakes. Eight older open company males signed on for the seven-furlong dirt sprint, which along with its sister stakes, the $100,000 Love Sign, is slated […]

Saturday’s Virginia-bred and -sired fillies and mares stakes action at Colonial Downs saw Thursday Girl and Noquestionaboutit upend the odds-on favorites to win the $125,000 Brookmeade and $125,000 Glenn Petty, respectively. Two upstarts trained by Brittany Russell ran one-two in the Brookmeade, led by Timbercreek Racing’s Thursday Girl. Piloted by Sheldon Russell, Thursday Girl covered […]

Virginia-bred and -sired males took centerstage in two stakes on Friday at Colonial Downs, and odds-on favorites Repo Rocks and Showstopper Copper reigned supreme in the $125,000 Edward P. Evans and $125,000 Punch Line Stakes, respectively. With the entirety of Friday’s card taken off the turf due to a late afternoon downpour, both the added […]

Racetrack Chaplain Jay Hurley, who is a pastor at the Samaria Baptist Church in Providence Forge, Virginia, recently began his seventh season at Colonial Downs sharing the love of Christ by ministering to the spiritual, emotional, physical, social and educational needs of grooms, exercise riders and other horse-affiliated personnel based in the track’s backstretch area. The […]

Aiming for his fourth consecutive score in the event, the Estate of R. Larry Johnson’s Determined Kingdom will face a field of nine in the $125,000 Punch Line, one of four stakes carded at Colonial Downs on Friday and Saturday for older Virginia-bred or -sired Thoroughbreds. With a pair of turf stakes carded each day, […]

With the first three draws in the books, entries have started strong at Colonial Downs for the first week of the 2025 summer season. Phones in the racing office, under the direction of new racing secretary Dan Bork, were steadily ringing. The expanded 41-day summer session runs from July 9 through Sept. 13. The 2025 […]

Jane Dunavant’s Kat’s Fancy got to the front in Saturday’s $89,600 Virginia Breeder’s 3-Year-Old Filly Trot field at Shenandoah Downs, held off challenges from stablemate Peggy’s Girl and betting choice Caviart Glory without ever relinquishing the lead, then surged to a one-half length win in 1:56 1/5. The time established a new track record in […]