Dr. Charlie Dunavant and Dr. Scott Woogen will receive lifetime achievement recognition in the sport of harness racing on Saturday, May 8 during the first ever Shenandoah Downs "Wall of Colours" ceremony. The pair have been prominent leaders in Virginia harness racing and will be heralded for their invaluable contributions to this important agribusiness.
Their racing colours will be mounted on the new 175-stall Virginia Equine Alliance Racing & Livestock Barn, which debuted during the Shenandoah Downs harness race meet in fall 2025. The 32,500 square foot structure has been a game changer in Woodstock, Virginia providing safe and secure housing for the equine athletes who compete here every spring and fall.
Dunavant was the initial and longtime head of the Virginia Harness Horse Association (VHHA) and was instrumental in getting pari-mutuel wagering legislation approved in the Commonwealth. It took several years of failed ballot measures, lobbying and negotiations but it finally got done in the late 1980s. "Doc" and the VHHA then worked on integrating harness racing into Colonial Downs, where the sport had a 16-year run over North America's only one-turn mile oval from 1998-2014.
Dunavant's career in the sport has spanned 54 years and his overall love of horses is a lifelong passion. A Richmond, Virginia native, Dunavant got his first horse at the age of two.
"I did not grow up in racing," he said. "We grew up very poor. My father worked at Dupont and he had pleasure riding horses. We trail rode together whenever he had free time. When I was a youngster, ponies were extremely expensive but when the bottom dropped out on the Welsh Pony market, my father bought five and they just accumulated. We started racing harness ponies and that's how I got interested."
Dunavant attended veterinary school at the University of Georgia and after graduation, purchased the 155-acre Woodhill Farm in Victoria — where he still works and resides with Jane, his wife of 40 years. Shortly after the farm purchase, he acquired his first Standardbred horse.
Dunavant's first $100,000 USD earning horse was a trotter named Royal Photo, which he paid $3,000 USD for.
"Genetics fascinate me," he said. "In the horse business, people that have a lot of money can buy the best-looking things, but they can't always buy the best.
"Early in my career, I got offered $100,000 for a horse that had just won at The Meadowlands in 1:55. If I sold that horse, I'd just pay bills and have no horse. I kept him and he went on to make $150,000."
Dunavant has always favoured trotters and has had great success with them from both a breeding and racing standpoint. He has thrived in Virginia Breeder's competition over the years at Colonial Downs and most recently, at Shenandoah Downs.
Since 2020, he, along with his wife Jane, reached the winner's circle with six different trotters in Virginia Breeder's Championship finals. Air Time (2000), Vlahos (2021), Big Daddy D (2021), RIP Away (2023), Pretty Two (2024) and Kats Fancy all provided title victories — and trophies that Dunavant displays on a wall in the basement of his new house, located on the farm property. He also has a large handcrafted comforter that proudly displays winner's circle photos of his many champions.
Dunavant, now 82, doesn't get a big kick so much from winning races with a $5,000 purse.
"I do get a kick out of races with a $100,000 purse though," he chuckled. "I get excited by the quality of the horse especially my homebreds."
Dusty Winner, a $6,500 USD purchase who won a New York Sire Stakes at Buffalo Raceway in 2006 as a three-year-old, sired all six of those recent Virginia champs. As a stud, the now 23-year-old has sired 38 starters who have earned a combined $3 million USD.
"Not bad for a small horseman from Lunenberg County," said Dunavant. "I always went to sales and spent money I didn't have," he joked.
Like Dunavant, Woogen did not grow up in a harness racing family. He was introduced to the sport in a unique way while living in the Bronx.
"I was 14 years old playing basketball in an elementary school yard with some older kids and a New York City policeman came by and asked if any of us wanted a job," he said. "Nobody else wanted one but I needed money. The officer's moonlighting job, it turns out, was writing a nightly tip sheet for Yonkers Raceway and he would sell them on buses that went to the track. This was in the pre-casino and pre-lottery era and Yonkers at the time was drawing crowds of 30,000 people on weekends. It was big business. The job itself was selling those tip sheets to bus patrons and I got paid $5 a night, six times a week. I sold hundreds of them. I'd start to watch the races with the bus driver and by 16, had a work permit, started working in the stables and walking horses."
After high school, Woogen won the Collegiate driving championship at Roosevelt Raceway while in medical school and got his picture in the Sunday New York Times as a result.
"There wasn't many horses around when I was growing up in the Bronx. My mom was vehemently anti-gambling. When I won that championship, she was in the crowd and I could see her jumping up and down.
"I won and it was a lot of fun but it's a heck of a way to make a living. When I got older and established and finished medical school, I got my first horse as an owner but wanted to get back into driving. I started qualifying horses at Roosevelt and got my 'A' license."
A career driving highlight for Woogen came in 2005 when he won the C.K.G. Billings Harness Driving Series Championship. The series included weekly competitions at various racetracks in the United States and Canada and was considered the Grand Circuit of amateur racing. From that win, he was invited to international amateur competitions in Finland, Spain, Germany, Russia and New Zealand, among other countries.
Woogen was on the VHHA Board for many years before he became President, eventually succeeding Dunavant in 2015. Like his predecessor, he worked for passage of pari-mutuel racing in Virginia for years. During that transition time, the previous owner of Colonial Downs turned in his racing license and shut the track down. Harness racing in the state marched on though without missing a beat. A two-week meet took place at the Oak Ridge Estate in Nelson County in 2015 before relocating permanently to Woodstock in 2016.
"Woodstock was a fair track at the time so we had to redo it with the help of the Coon Brothers and the Virginia Equine Alliance," he said. "From there, we slowly built up a racing program that now covers 28 days over 14 weeks. We hope to increase the number of days at some point soon."
Woogen noted the creation of the Virginia Sired Stakes program as a major accomplishment.
"We have 15 stallions standing in the state this year and purses for the Sire Stakes divisional finals rose to $100,000 USD. That means more farm activity and a bigger agricultural benefit. I'm really proud of that. We can't survive without showing continued agricultural growth in the state. We continue to work with legislators to grow this sport in Virginia."
As far as personal accomplishments go, his Paulimony won the last harness race ever held at Colonial Downs. And like Dunavant, Woogen has found success with horses he breeds and owns, especially with a current pair of four-year-old trotters — KJ The Thirteenth and Mane Man Charlie. The former has already bankrolled $284,375 USD from 16 wins and was named Cloverleaf Standardbred Owners Association Sophomore Mare Trotter of 2025. Woogen described the latter as "a horse with limited breeding that turned out to be a real nice racehorse." He captured a $100,000 USD Excelsior Series division at Saratoga last year and won a New York Sire Stake division as a two-year-old.
Woogen, now 70, took up golf during the pandemic.
"It's a blessing to be that age and still be able to swing a golf club and drive a horse," he said. "Being in the medical profession, I appreciate that life is day to day and often minute to minute."
(VHHA; photos of Dr. Scott Woogen [left] and Dr. Charlie Dunavant [right])