Stars flock to Virginia for major stakes

©Tod Marks

Saturday’s Virginia Gold Cup Races at Great Meadow Race Course features the first of eight Grade 1 National Steeplechase Association hurdle stakes.

The first weekend of May will host the 101st Virginia Gold Cup Races, the second richest event of the spring with seven races, three stakes, and $405,000 in purses.

Highlighting the card, which has a first race post time of 1 p.m., are the $150,000 G1 Commonwealth Cup, a handicap hurdle at 2  ⅛ miles; the $75,000 Virginia Gold Cup timber stakes at 4 miles; and the $50,000 Speedy Smithwick four-year-old hurdle stakes.

The Commonwealth Cup has come up exceptionally strong, even by Grade 1 standards, as the field includes the long-awaited return of the 2023 Eclipse Award winner, Hurricana Farm’s Merry Maker (Arch Kingsley), who looked sharp taking a flat prep at the Carolina Cup Races, along with Del Rio Racing’s dual 2025 stakes winner Little Trilby (Ricky Hendriks), who came flying late to capture the G2 Will Allison stakes at Great Meadow last fall. Another returning star, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Daigneault Thoroughbreds’ Abaan (Kate Dalton), is coming off an extended injury layoff following a spectacular win over now-retired champion Snap Decision in last spring’s G1 Iroquois in Nashville. At 162 pounds, Abaan is the starting highweight and will be giving away 10 to 14 pounds to the rest of the field.

Moreover, the field includes Leipers Fork Steeplechase’s Rampoldi Plan (Leslie Young), winner of inaugural Commonwealth Cup in 2024 who is looking to get back on track after 16 months away from the races. He showed spark when finishing a close third to Little Trilby in the Allison. Two-time G1 Jonathan Sheppard star Jimmy P (Keri Brion), who has competed in 13 straight G1 and G2 stakes, is out to prove he can win outside of Saratoga and ran well in a prep for the Commonwealth Cup in a training flat race at Middleburg recently.

But if any of the heavy hitters are going to prevail, they’ll have to catch Michael Smith’s speedy Foxy Walk (Leslie Young), who proved in the 2025 Van Clief Memorial Stakes at Foxfield that he has the ability to carry his quickness the 2 1/8-mile distance of the Commonwealth Cup. In that contest, Foxy Walk went wire to wire to defeat eventual Eclipse Award winner Cool Jet.

The rest of the field includes a serious contender in Upland Flats Racing’s Hidden Path (Ricky Hendriks), who is at the top of his game. An allowance winner at Old Dominion meet to kick off his season, Hidden Path just missed in the G2 2 ½-mile Temple Gwathmey Stakes at Middleburg two weeks ago, getting caught near the wire by Zabeel Champion after unleashing a huge rally of his own.

Though he hasn’t won a jump race in three years, Riverdee Stable’s multiple stakes winner Welshman (Jack Fisher) is a threat at his best. He came oh-so-close in the G1 Lonesome Glory at Aqueduct in September, finishing a neck behind Swore, the season’s top novice.

In the co-featured $75,000 Virginia Gold Cup timber stakes at 4 miles, Keys Discount, Dolly Fisher’s reigning champion over post and rails, is expected to face three rivals as he goes for his seventh straight victory (all stakes). That’s one more opponent than he faced in his smashing 34-length victory in the Middleburg Hunt Cup on April 18, his first start in defense of his title.

Facing Keys Discount are Bruton Street-US’ Track and Trace (Mark Beecher), who has chased the champ three times in a row, with a second, third, and fourth to show for it. Similarly, Motley Crew Racing’s Marcel Magic (Kathy Neilson), hasn’t had any luck against Keys Discount in two tries, but tuned up for his first stakes race of the season with a second to classy Uco Valley at Cheshire in March. Perhaps the biggest challenge will come from Daniel Colhoun, Achsah O’Donovan, and Harvey Goolsby’s Bogey’s Image. Trained by Joe Davies, who captured his eighth Maryland Hunt Cup last weekend with Mr. Fine Threads, Bogey’s Image was third to Keys Discount in last year’s Gold Cup, beaten about six lengths. He prepped for the Gold Cup with a runaway win in the My Lady’s Manor stakes, but was disqualified when his jockey weighed in under the assigned weight.

A field of seven is expected for the Speedy Smithwick stakes, an early season showcase of budding four-year-old stars.

Trainer Ricky Hendriks and Del Rio Racing roll out European newcomer Lynches Knock, who brings a two for five lifetime record (maiden and weight for age hurdle) in Ireland to the NSA. Hendriks also saddles Leamington Racing’s homebred Grahamzilla, who was beaten a length in his debut in an optional maiden claimer at Aiken in March to Riverdee Stable’s newcomer Pudding Lane, who also runs in the Smithwick. Grahamzilla subsequently broke his maiden in his next start in similar company at Blue Ridge.

Paul and Molly Willis and BJF Racing’s Bourbonator (Barry Foley), a supplemental nominee, commands respect. The son of Belmont Stakes and Travers winner Tiz the Law, came off the flat after nine starts to take on the top three-year-old jumpers in his NSA debut in the Raymond G. Woolfe Memorial at the Colonial Cup Races in November, moving up from eighth to second. The only horse to finish in front of him (by 2 ¾ lengths) was co-division leader Cooper. Gill Johnston’s Scorpius was in the Woolfe, too, finishing a disappointing fifth following a strong second to the other three-year-old leader, Ethics, in the season’s only other three-year-old stakes, the Will O’Keefe at Virginia Fall.

St. Rita Racing’s Pleasant Fantasy (Kate Dalton) had a rough go in his first try over jumps in the Woolfe, but upped his game when he returned in March, turning in a professional and commanding 5 ¾ length maiden special weights score at the Carolina Cup Races.

Sharon Sheppard’s Investment Mandate (Leslie Young) won a pair of turf races (maiden and allowance) on the flat for the powerhouse combination of Klaravich Stable and trainer Chad Brown in 2025. He makes his debut over jumps in the Smithwick.

The rest of the card consists of a $40,000 maiden special weights contest; $20,000 steeplethon over mixed obstacles; $45,000 non-winners-of-two allowance; and a $25,000 maiden starter allowance for runners who have previously run for a claiming tag of $25,000 or less.

This year’s maiden starter event has been named in honor of the late Academy Award winning actor, local resident, and equestrian supporter Robert Duvall, who passed away in February.

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If you can’t make it to the races, be sure to catch the live stream at www.nationalsteeplechase.com.