Virginia Sired Stakes stallion registration deadline approaching

(WOODSTOCK, VA — 11/27/2024) —- The Virginia Harness Horse Association (VHHA)’s deadline to register harness racing stallions for the Virginia Sired Stakes 2025 breeding season is December 1. Now three years old, the Sired Stake initiative complements the VHHA’s Breeder’s Fund Race program and Certified Residency program — in an effort to keep standardbred racing in the Commonwealth moving forward.

Sired Stake races will be run at Shenandoah Downs based on age, sex and gait. Elimination races will feature a $6,000 purse and finals will go for $60,000. Yearling payments of $25.00 per horse are due May 15th of its yearling year. Two and three-year-old sustaining payments of $100.00 per horse are due March 15th and May 15th each year. Declaration payments of $100.00 per horse are due when the horse is dropped in the box for an elimination race.

Sired foals are also eligible to compete in the Virginia Breeder’s Fund races during the same years. Those races feature $8,000 eliminations and $80,000 finals. When combined, sired foals can race for $154,000 plus added money as freshmen and sophomores.

In addition, 15% Sired Stake bonus payments will be awarded to both the stallion owner and breeder based on purse amounts won from respective eliminations and finals. The first slate of Sired Stakes races will be contested at Shenandoah Downs next fall for 2-year-olds, from the 2023 foal crop.

A complete list of stallions will be available after December 1 at www.vhha.net. For details on bringing a stallion to Virginia or any of the incentive programs, contact Debbie Warnick at 443-463-0917.

by Darrell Wood, for the Virginia Harness Horse Association