Strawberry Hill Races
About The Event

Taking place Spring 2010, The Strawberry Hill Races are a salute to Virginia’s equine industry. In 2009, the event featured some of the best steeplechase racing on the East Coast, with four races over hurdles and two on the flat. Central Virginia’s annual ‘rite of spring,’ the event is sanctioned by the National Steeplechase Association and includes five races over jumps and on the flat with total purses and awards of over $70,000.


The Presenter

The Strawberry Hill Races is produced by SFVA, the non-profit organization that also produces the State Fair of Virginia and the Meadow Highland Games & Celtic Festival.

Get your passes!
The Strawberry Hill Races
offer a vehicle-based admission
system. Click here to learn
more about your options, or
contact the Ticket Office:
804.994.2900
Strawberry Hill Racing
Tradition

Strawberry Hill Races


Origins of the
Strawberry Hill Races

The Strawberry Hill Races, formerly the Deep Run Races, organized and sponsored by the Deep Run Hunt Club, date back to November 30, 1895, when the first Deep Run Races were held at “Chantilly” on Board Street Road in Richmond. The first running of the “Deep Run Hunt Cup” took place the following year at the same location. The race meet changed locations during the ensuing years, being held for a time in Ginter Park and later at the current site of the Country Club of Virginia.

During World War I and for some time after, the Deep Run Races were not held. It was not until 1927 that the Deep Run Races were re-established and a steeplechase course was constructed at “Curles Neck” on the James River. It has been an annual event ever since.

In 1973, the Deep Run Hunt Club decided to discontinue its sponsorship of the race meet and the Atlantic Rural Exposition, now known as the State Fair of Virginia, Inc. took over this role, feeling the event compatible with its mission to support agriculture and with it, Virginia’s equine industry.