Gold Charm wins Theodora A. Randolph Stakes at Colonial Downs

Gold Charm handled Colonial Downs with the kind of measured efficiency that separates the best steeplechase mares from the merely durable ones, winning the Grade 2 Theodora A. Randolph Stakes by 2 3/4 lengths on a 2 1/4-mile hurdle test. The 7-year-old mare, ridden by Jamie Bargary for trainer Cyril Murphy and owner Irvin S. Naylor, stopped the clock in 4:05.93 and never let the race get away from her once the field began to string out.

The victory was more than a neat scoreline. Gold Charm finished 13 1/2 lengths clear of runner-up Timetoshine, with Anoint another 6 1/4 lengths back in third. Claramente, Encosta (IRE) and Red Tone completed the official order of finish in the six-runner race, while Anador (FR), Fiery Dart and Noemie de La Vis (FR) were scratched. Equibase listed Gold Charm as the winner of the $100,000 stakes and returned $5.40 to win, with the exacta paying $5.90.

For Gold Charm, the trip through Colonial’s jumping lanes reinforced the profile she has built as a European-bred mare who can translate stamina into American hurdles form. By Golden Horn out of Deveron, she arrived at New Kent already carrying the kind of pedigree that can travel in this division, and her latest start before Virginia was a fourth-place finish in the Margaret Currey Henley Stakes Hurdle at Percy Warner Park on May 9. At Colonial, the mare’s efficiency over the longer trip made the difference, and Bargary kept her clear of trouble while the others had to chase.

The race also carried added weight for the meet itself. Colonial Downs and the National Steeplechase Association staged the track’s first all-steeplechase card in 13 years on June 29, with the day’s opening post set for 10:45 a.m. The Theodora A. Randolph has long been one of the more recognizable female jumping prizes on the East Coast, named for Theodora Ayer Randolph, who was Master of Piedmont Fox Hounds from 1954 until her death in 1996 and chaired the Virginia Fall Races for many years.

Colonial’s jump card came after the track’s earlier live-racing era, which ran from 1997 to 2013 before the venue reopened in 2019. On this day, Gold Charm gave the steeplechase program a centerpiece worthy of the setting and left little doubt about the mare to beat when this division meets again over a similar trip.