By Betsy Parker Times Newspapers Staff Writer Yes, Virginia,

By Betsy Parker

Times Newspapers Staff Writer

Yes, Virginia, steepkchasing is alive and well in the 21st century commonwealth. Check your local listings far proof: The trade paper, the Steeplechase Times, burgeons with advertising and editorial coverage. Color photos make headline news even in big national dailies — The Washington Post featured jump racing from Great Meadow last fall in a full-color, above-the-fokl A-l shot. And the local paper features horses weekly.

Sporting prints — oils, pastels, pencil drawings — cover wall space in private homes as well as business establishments. Really, to live in Virginia's horse country is a little like being part of a 19th-century Snaffles racing print.

A virtual army of connected professionals brings the sport to the public — writers, photographers, artists, journalists, sculptors, videographers, historians. Steeplechasing is big business in the mid-Atlantic region, and coverage of the circuit is, as well.

In this special Spring Steeplechase 2008 issue, we take a hard look inside the sport, from an allnew angle.

We wanted to know who, and how, they get the news. We looked high and low for the story — Eclipse Award-winning photographer Douglas Lees tells all in a profile piece, while two other circuit shooters — Tod Marks and Sarah Greenhalgh — give their best tips for the amateur photographer.

In their own words, sporting artist Sandra Forbush and steeplechase historian Peter Winants talk about their life in the business, while the voice of Virginia ‘chasing. Will O'Keefe, shares some exciting new features of the CentralEntryOffice.com Web site.

All the usual suspects are contained within, as well: Map the action with a handy, pullout guide to the spring season; track the points leaders — local, statewide and national — and learn more about