THE END OF A PARTY ERA

What do the Virginia Gold Cup and infield party at the Preakness have in common. Well, not as much as you might think and the similarities draw smaller starting tomorrow.

Now, mind you, both have in common a great party, a great picnic and a great horse race, but after that the paths divide. To be politically correct, we’ll say it’s a matter of “style points.” However, another thing both events share is the tradition of B.Y.O.B.

While the Gold Cup is a bit more polished and sophisticated, the Preakness infield has long been famous for one of the biggest and most raucous parties in horse racing. Participants in this time honored tradition are worried that the glory days may be over. Gone are the morning lacrosse game and scaffolding which allowed those so inclined a view of more than the Preakness horses’ ears and the jockeys’ caps assuming they could scale their creation by late afternoon.

But the party has long been fueled by Pimlico’s policy of BYOB. Not anymore. Josh Bacott of the popular sport’s blog Joe Sports Fan had this to say:

For the first time in recent memory, those grizzled horse racing fans that make up the infield crowd at Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course on Preakness day will not be allowed to bring in their most effective handicapping tool: booze.
If the Preakness had one clear-cut advantage over its more famous counterpart in Kentucky, it was that those who chose to brave the infield in Pimlico were rewarded with a free pass to haul in as much alcohol as they could shove into a cooler. While both the Derby and the Preakness still managed to crank out their fair share of YouTube clips featuring the time-honored tradition of port-a-racing, it remained a safe bet to assume that the Preakness was topping the trifecta in the race to see which Triple Crown event could produce more drunken meatheads.

To read the blog post, click here.

Sometimes, the more things change, the more things don’t stay the same…