Heart of Virginia

Moments before the start of a horse race, horse breeder Whit Galtry tells one of his employees, jockey Jimmy Easter, that he has bet a great deal of money on Jimmy’s horse and that he expects him to win at any cost. When Galtry tells Jimmy that he plans to use the prize money to buy an automobile for his daughter Virginia, Jimmy, who is in love with Virginia, promises to do everything he can to ensure a victory. Tragedy strikes during the race, however, when Jimmy tries to squeeze between two horses and causes another horse to unseat its jockey. Jimmy visits the injured jockey in his hospital room and apologizes to him, but the jockey dies a short time later. Despondent over the accident, Jimmy decides to quit racing for a time, but returns to enter the prestigious Gold Cup competition. When Jimmy loses the Gold Cup race, Galtry, who bet all his money on Jimmy’s horse, goes broke. Angered by the loss, Galtry dismisses Jimmy and gives his horse, Virginia’s Pride, to his daughter. Jimmy later fails in all his attempts to find another racing job, and eventually takes a job at a service station with his former stable hand, Sunflower Jones. Two years pass, and Galtry becomes his interested in horse racing again when his daughter enters her horse in a race at Beverly Park. Soon after, Galtry introduces his daughter to wealthy horse owner Dan Lockwood, and Dan falls instantly in love with her and offers to house her horse at his ranch. With Virginia’s help, Jimmy then gets a job working at Dan’s ranch, and is soon put in charge of training her horse. Jimmy eventually learns that Virginia is Dan’s sweetheart, and sadly realizes that he misunderstood her motives. Jimmy quits his job, but Dan prevents his departure by appealing to his love for Virginia. After consenting to ride Virginia’s horse, Jimmy takes the animal on a practice run. The session, however, is brought to an unexpected halt when Virginia’s Pride is injured in a fall. When Galtry discovers that Jimmy rode his daughter’s horse, he gives him a whipping. Later, Virginia breaks her engagement to Dan after mistakenly concluding that Dan is only interested in marrying her to ensure his profits at the racetrack. Jimmy, who has given up his romantic pursuit of Virginia, agrees to help Dan regain her trust by riding her horse to victory. The plan works, and all ends happily as Dan and Virginia resume their romance, and Jimmy is invited to continue working for them.