While Woodstock, Virginia might not be one of North America's most renowned locations for harness racing, 2014 marks the second year of the Shenandoah County Fair's Wine and Trotter Festival. And this year's festival gave them something to brag about.

This year's Wine and Trotter Festival featured harness racing along with over 60 wines from 10 award-winning wineries, a free souvenir wine glass, music, food and crafters at the Shenandoah County Fairgrounds, located about 90 miles from Washington, D.C.

And in a sight not often seen before the middle of May, it also featured the first two-year-old winner of 2014.

In the first race of the afternoon, John Baxter rolled his homebred Roll Big to a three-length score in 2:07.1. A son of Cams Card Shark from the Art Major mare Queen Of Arts, Roll Big has a fairly deep pedigree when you hit the 3rd dam -- Sable Hanover, and names like Royal Mattjesty, Doonbeg and Little Miss K pop out.

The event was designed to give young trotters and pacers racing education at the start of the season and for the vintners of the Shenandoah Valley Wine Trail to show off their offerings.

As a bonus for winning horse owners, each race winner gets a bottle of wine from one of a dozen participating vineyards.

“We wanted to give our Virginia, Maryland and some Pennsylvania horsemen a chance to practice with their horses for a little bit of purse money,” Woodstock Race Secretary Terry Kibler told HRC. “Give them a chance to get behind the starting gate and get a charted line, give them a tune up.

“We have had harness racing at the fair since 1917 and we continue to have that (in late August), but this also stirs a little more interest to get people to come out to the fair as well.”

(with files from HRC)