LOCAL BOY DOES GOOD

Just last weekend, a horse named Quality Road won the Florida Derby, which is a major prep race for that other horse race they run on the first Saturday in May - the Kentucky Derby.

Yes, the Virginia Gold Cup shares it's big day which makes perfect sense -- the biggest "timber" horse race in the land followed up by the biggest "flat" race in the land. Mind you, it takes the Gold Cup horses a bit longer to traverse the four mile course with 19 substantial jumps to hurdle than it does the best three-year-olds in the country to cover 1 1/4 miles sans obstructions.

So if the Kentucky Derby is considered "the most exciting two minutes in sports," that makes the Virginia Gold Cup the "most exciting seven minutes in sports!"

But, we digress...

The point about Quality Road is he was born just down the road from the Gold Cup's headquarters in Warrenton, VA. For those of you that follow the spring steeplechase circuit in Northern Virginia, you will recognize his birthplace - Casanova, VA. That's the same Casanova that hosts the Casanova Hunt and subsequently, the Casanova Hunt Point-to-Point in late February.

Quality Road is now pointing the Kentucky Derby, and should he win, he would be the first horse born in Virginia to do so since Sea Hero won in 1993.

Keep your fingers crossed.