Don’t Gamble On Missing The Fun

This week is your last week to enter the Virginia Lottery’s Foxfield/Gold Cup Race Experience Sweepstakes.

If you love the experience of a good horse race, make sure you register to win a VIP experience at either the Foxfield Races in Charlottesville or the Virginia Gold Cup Races at Great Meadow in The Plains.

Just click here for more details. 

You have until April 15!  So do it today!

WHAT NOT TO WEAR

What to wear and what not to wear are staples of the Virginia Gold Cup and the Virginia Blog Cup as well.

The Gold Cup proper will give you tips (click here) and a scroll through this blog will be helpful as well.  We track pre-Gold Cup fashion pretty closely, and, while we aren’t qualified to tell you what to wear, after over thirty-years of Gold Cup experience, we are qualified to tell you what not to wear.

Do not wear this.

(Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images AsiaPac)

Or this.

(Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images AsiaPac)

Or this.

(Matt Cardy/Getty Images Europe)

These first two lovely outfits were part of the Westfield's 'Australia's Biggest Runway Show' at Customs House just yesterday in Sydney, Australia.  

The gents were part of a funeral procession for one John Horwood who was sentenced to death in 1821 and subsequently hanged.  Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending on your perspective), his body was given to science and never given a proper burial.  When he turned up in a distant relative’s cabinet, civilized arrangements were made and Horwood was buried in his family’s plot exactly 190 years to the hour when he met his demise on the gallows.

Long story short, it you would wear it to a funeral in England, you wouldn't wear it to the Gold Cup.

ACCESORIZE, ACCESORIZE, ACCESORIZE

(The Photo Agency)

And not just the ladies, you men can get into the hat action as well.   Might save you some sunburn in addition to adding to your already cool look…

(Photos by Clara Biondo/Getty Images Europe)

NATS FANS: COME ON OUT TO THE GOLD CUP

Our Washington Nationals best known for misspelling things on uniforms and around the stadium and for losing games are off to a rock solid 5-6 start.  Last night they gave 2010 National League Cy Young Award winner Roy Hallaway a scare with a ninth inning rally that came up one run short in a 3-2 loss. 

(www.TodaysACCHeadlines.com)

It didn’t help the Nats’ cuase that the home plate umpire appeared to be in a hurry to make his exit when this pitch was called a strike for the final out of the game with the tying run on third and the winning run on first!

Oh well…

The good news is the Nats are out of town on Gold Cup weekend down in Florida playing the Marlins. 

So get your tickets and come on out to Great Meadow the first Saturday in May.

PICTURE OF THE DAY

A runner returns after the last race of the day at Newmarket racecourse on April 13, 2011 in Newmarket, England. (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/ Getty Images)

MINIATURE GIRAFFES TO RACE AT GOLD CUP(?)

Surely by now, you have seen the commercial with Russian billionaire “I Am Epic Win” featuring his miniature giraffe working out on a treadmill.

Well, what better way to liven up the extremely popular Jack Russell Terrier Races (paddock, 11:15 am) at the Virginia Gold Cup than adding a very expensive, very rare and very exclusive miniature giraffe into the equation.  It could give the term "the race of his life" a whole new meaning!

The tiny giraffes hail from the famous Sokoblovsky Farms in Russia where they are known as “Petite Lap Giraffes.”

Korsakov

According to the Sokoblovsky Farm's website it all got started when “Great Grandfather Nicolas escaped circus with best friend Alex, the giraffe. The rest they say is history. For the next century our family have made business of Petite Lap Giraffe breeding here in Russia. We welcome you to visit Sokoblovsky Farms, just 80 kilometers outside Krasnodar.”

(As far as we can tell, Krasnodar is just about 9 kilometers west of Craptagorsk.)

According to the Sokoblovskys, the Petite Lap Giraffes require special care including daily hugs and kisses, a diet of bonsai tree leaves (available at www.BonsaiLeavesRUs.com) and a weekly bubble bath.  

The web site says the optimal environment includes a clean litter box, “filtered” air conditioning and the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov if possible.

Do all this and your Petite Lap Giraffe will be happy and thriving.  Otherwise, according to Sokoblovsky “they make tears.”  We are assuming they mean teeny-tiny petite lap giraffe tears…

Of course, you to may want one, but that’s a bit tricky.  Seems as the gestation period is 420 days, so it takes a while to generate these precious little critters.  This process if further slowed by the fact that there is very limited breeding stock – one bull named Vladimir and one cow named Svetlana.

That said, don’t be discouraged, click here to find out how to get your Petite Lap Giraffe.  Then click the button that says “I Want Giraffe clicking here,” and prepare to laugh. 

Out loud.

OUT OF THE ATTIC

This is where we bring back some classic posts annually because we can!  We first ran this post back in 2007, but it's worth revisiting for the photos alone…

HEY! HO! LET’S MOW!

Great Meadow Grand Prix

It’s a three man grounds team here at Great Meadow, so for the three weeks prior to the Gold Cup we run at full tilt getting everything ready for the Virginia Gold Cup races. So what does that mean?

It means we are mowing grass. And with the weather turning warm again today and all weekend, it means we will be mowing and weed-eating until the sun sets each day. Don’t tell us we don’t know how to have a good time!

To get the race course ready, it’s a process. First we mow the new spring grass to about 5 inches to thicken it up. Then, we slowly raise the height up on the race course to 6 or 7 inches to make the perfect cushion for the horses. (We also have our own rain dance here at Great Meadow because it is important that the ground have a certain level of moisture on race day.)

So, about two weeks ago, we rolled our irrigation reels out onto the course so they would be ready to irrigate as the weather had been very dry. Sometimes, this process is kind of like getting your car washed on a sunny day, it brings the rain. It worked again this year.

Lots of people ask if we aerate. Fortunately, the girls wearing high heels take care of that for us at the fall and the spring races. Once they figure out that while high heels are fashionable, they aren’t the best answer for steeple chase footwear, we’re going to have even more work on our plate.

Dennis Hopper's or Peter Fonda's lawnmower (?)

There is also the work we do to the jumps, fences and other structures in preparation for race day. We’ve repaired, painted and stained fencelines, jumps and more. The roads are groomed so they are ready to handle the nearly 8,000 cars and buses that will pull through the gates on the first Saturday in May.

That’s basically the strategic plan for Gold Cup preparations. Lots of work, but you’re worth it. Did I mention that we have to mow? I’m off to draw straws to see who gets to use the John Deere Chopper Snapper today. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

THE RUMOR MILL

Well, there’s a new big rumor swirling about from Washington D.C. all the way to Charlottesville, VA.   Seems as someone is planning to “create” a new social network site with incredible marketing potential.

Recently, an anonymous corporate entity registered in Delaware called We Want To Step On Mark Zuckerberg's Face Inc. also registered the business name “Virginia Gold Cupbook.”  An anonymous company spokesperson, who may or may not have attended Harvard, said the new social entity is “for all the cool kids.”

When asked if there might be some copyright infringement by simply inserting the world “book” behind Virginia Gold Cup, the anonymous spokesperson said, “Holy Coxswain! That never occurred to us…I mean them.”

He went on to say, “It really isn’t a problems since the names are clearly different based on the use of the word “the”  as in “the” Virginia Gold Cup as opposed to Virginia Gold Cup.  Completely different, those two.  You know just like we…er…I mean they said “the facebook” and that other despicable rat just used the name Facebook.”

Stay tuned for more…

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Paul Hanagan riding Barefoot Lady (R) win The $80,000 Lanwades Stud Nell Gwyn Stakes Gr.3 at Newmarket racecourse on April 13, 2011 in Newmarket, England.  (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images Europe)

PICTURES OF THE DAY (SO FAR)

Just kidding! That’s really Elisabetta Gregoracci, wife of Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, posing with the peacock when they took their son Nathan Falco to the zoo in Rome yesterday. (Photo by Photo Agency)

Another look at Jason Maguire and Ballabriggs (c)  during the John Smith's Grand National Steeple Chase at Aintree Racecourse on April 9, 2011 in Liverpool, England.  Ballabriggs won.  (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images Europe)

Nepalese soldiers on horseback jump through burning arches during the Ghode Jatra (horse race) festival in Kathmandu on April 3, 2011. The Nepalese army celebrates the Ghode Jatra festival every year with various equestrian activities. 

PRINCE WILLIAM AND KATE NOT HONEYMOONING AT GOLD CUP

And a bloody thank heavens for that. 

It’s hard enough to move around the crowd of 50,000 without a bunch of royal gapers and international paparazzi shoving about trying to get a digital snap of the royal couple.

Luckily, Great Meadow didn’t make the list which is rumored to include Australia, Barbuda, Necker Island, Corfu, Ibiza, Kenya and Mustique.

Speaking of Mustique – a tiny private island in the Caribbean where the rich and famous have frolicked for years – one of its most permanent residents has managed to score an invitation to the big wedding.

Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe

Now while we haven’t been invited, and you haven’t been invited, Basil Charles has been invited.  So has somebody named Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe, so how much fun can the wedding be…really?

(Which begs the question: Is Inès Marie Lætitia Églantine Isabelle de Seignard de La Fressange on the guest list?  Oh no, we aren’t making that one up either – the famous former model just published a book titled Paris Chic which includes a section on "How to Dress Like a Parisian." She want you to know this: No complete outfits. Don't look "rich." Wear two scarves. Make sure you own the following: a man's blazer, a trench coat, a navy sweater, a tank top, a little black dress, jeans and a leather jacket, Converse sneakers and flats. Got that?)

But we digress, they call Charles “The King of Mustique” -- the godfather of the glitterati. For the past 30 years, celebrities ranging from Prince William to Amy Winehouse, Mick Jagger to Kate Moss, the late Princess Margaret to the Beckhams have knocked back a cocktail at his beachside bar aptly named Basil’s Bar.

Inès Marie Lætitia Églantine Isabelle
de Seignard de La Fressange

So why have Prince Will (I Am Not!) and Kate included Charles on the guest list?  We guess for two reasons.  Everybody loves a good beach bar with a discreet, knowing and way-cool bartender. Check, Basil’s got all of that goin’ on.

That said, these days all of Charles current and former clientele aren’t looking to rock the King of Mustique’s boat as the sixty-two-year-old bar keep is publishing his memoirs. “My book will shock the high society of Mustique as it will tell the truth about celebrities at play,” he told London’s Daily Mail.  

According to the Mail, the mere concept of such an “indiscretion” has the stars “quaking in their jeweled Louboutins.”

(BTW, Louboutins are fancy French shoes…we didn’t know either, we had to Google it…and that is another reason we haven’t been invited! Ahh, affronter la vie avec...noblesse...)

Basil Charles

SAND BOX RULES WINS OLD DOMINION OPEN TIMBER

Kinross Farm's Sand Box Rules (Chris Read riding) was the winner of the open timber race at the Old Dominion Hounds Point-to-Point at Ben Venue Farm in Ben Venue, VA on Saturday, April 9, 2011. Proffesor Maxwell and Gus Brown were second and Freeboard with Willie Dowling (pictured) was third.

Sand Box Rules (Susan M. Carter Photo) 

Kinross' connections – owners Zohar and Lisa Ben-Dov and trainer Neil Morris – are no strangers to the winner's enclosure at Great Meadow having won three Virginia Gold Cups to date.

PICTURE OF THE DAY...

So far...

Photo by Susan M. Carter

From the Gold Cup's Facebook page, to see more click here.

PICTURES OF THE DAY

Winner Ballabrigs, Jason Maguire up, soras over the 4th last fence, the open ditch, during the John Smith’s Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree Racecoure in Liverpool, England.  (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Toby’s Corner and jockey Eddie Castro upset Kentucky Derby favorite Uncle Mo (on rail) to win the $1 million Wood Memorial at Aqueduct Race Track in Ozone Park, New York.  It was the biggest upset in the race since Angle Light defeated eventual Triple Crown winner Secretariat in 1973.  (Photo by Heinz Kluemeier/SI)

MORE PHOTOS FROM AINTREE

OK, enough teasing, here are some more great photos from today at Aintree in Liverpool.

Runners take the 'Chair' in The John Smith's Topham Steeple Chase as a large crowd look on at Aintree racecourse on April 08, 2011 in Liverpool, England.  (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images Europe)

Ruby Walsh riding Master Minded clears the last to win The John Smith's Melling Steeple Chase. (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images Europe)

Runners in The John Smith's Topham Steeple Chase make their way down the back straight at Aintree.  (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images Europe)

Davy Russell riding Quito De La Roque (R) on their way to winning The John Smith's Mildmay Novices' Steeple Chase. (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images Europe)

Always Waining ridden by Tom O'Brien (22) clears the last fence on their way to victory in The John Smith's Topham Steeple Chase during Ladies' Day at Aintree Racecourse.  (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images Europe)

Daryl Jacob riding Topolski win The John Smith's Top Novices' Hurdle.  (Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images Europe)

LADIES DAY AT AINTREE

(Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)

In preparation for the English Grand National on Saturday, Aintree annually hosts Ladies Day.  Now, part of the Virginia Gold Cup tradition is lovely women in beautiful spring dresses and hats, so annually we feel compelled to compare the two events.

As usual, the Gold Cup wins again. 

Granted the folks at Aintree are burdened with a few handicaps.  First off, it’s England – it is, what it is.  Secondly, the weather isn’t as pleasant as it usually is on the first Saturday in May at Great Meadow in The Plains, VA and finally, well…let’s just say fashion is viewed differently.

Here’s some photos from today’s event. 

(Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty Images)

(Andrew Crowhurst/Getty Images)

(Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty Images)

(Andrew Crowhurst/Getty Images)

(Andrew Crowhurst/Getty Images)

(Alex Livesey/Getty Images Europe)

(Alex Livesey/Getty Images Europe)

CHARLIE SHEEN TO SING NATIONAL ANTHEM AT GOLD CUP?

Naaah.

Just kiddin'.

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Rosbrian Farm's More Fascination (Paddy Young) won the open timber race at last weekend’s Orange County Point-to-Point.  Eyeing the 86^th Virginia Gold Cup, perhaps?

FAMILIAR SIGNS POINT TO SPRING VIRGINIA GOLD CUP

Irish Raptor ridden by Paddy Brennan

Well, it’s that time of year again.

How do we know?

Easy, spring is springing – or at least its trying, baseball opening day has come and gone (sans the spring weather), the Final Four is over (thank goodness!) and the English Grand National is coming up on Saturday.  All  point one place and one place only -- the Virginia Gold Cup.

The weather has been iffy but early March was such the lamb we had to expect some lion in later in the month and in early April.

The weather opening day was awful and the Nationals (who continue to misspell any number of things on scoreboards, jerseys and cups) lost to the Atlanta Braves 2-0.  The home town boys are 1-2 since and 1-3 overall.  Not too much fun until the weather gets better.

The Final Four NCAA championship game between Butler and UConn was the worst basketball game in the history of the world.  Go ahead, try to prove us wrong.  Butler almost failed to score a point-a-minute averaging a mind-numbingly bad 1.025 points per minute on equally mind blowing 18.8% shooting – the worst since the Crimean War or some such event.  Basketball teams have consistently scored well over one point per minute since the 1940's.

The English Grand National is coming up this weekend and it always draws a large field and still features such famous obstacles as the Chair and Beecher’s Brook.  It isn’t for the faint of heart, but then the British and Irish, while known for certain quirks (OK, some might say peculiarities and faults) are naught if not stout of heart.  (That last bit should rile up some of the gang!)

An amazing sight from Monday night's NCAA championship game!

All of this points to the first Saturday in May and the 86th running of the Virginia Gold Cup, so order your tickets today.  The economy is improving and demand is picking up.  Don’t miss it.

GOLD CUP CHAIRMAN HONORED

Virginia Gold Cup Chairman Dr. Will Allison was recently honored by the Virginia Steeplechase Association as was EMO Stables' He's A Conniver who won last year's International Gold Cup.  Click on the photo for a better view.

SOMETHING YOU WILL NOT SEE AT THE 2011 VA GOLD CUP

Regina Mayer takes her cow Luna overa  jump in Laufen, Germany.  When Regina’s parents dashed her hopes of getting a horse, the 15-year-old trained her cow to jump over homemade hurdles made of beer crates and painted logs.  (Photo by Kerstin Joensson/AP Photos)

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Robert Thorton riding Araldur wins the Free Bets At gg.com Novice Hurdle to record his 1,000th winner of his riding career at Towcester racecourse in England.  (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)

PICTURE OF THE DAY

Horses and jockeys jump the second to last during the Countryside Alliance Handicap Steeple Chase race run at Fakenham Racecourse on February 18, 2011 in Fakenham, England. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images Europe)

GREAT MEADOW FOUNDER, GOLD CUP CHAMP ARTHUR "NICK" ARUNDEL DIES AT 83

 Arthur W. "Nick" Arundel, the founder of the Northern Virginia Times Community newspapers and the Great Meadow Foundation, died Feb. 8 at his home in The Plains. He was 83.

Arundel, a native Washingtonian, was a Harvard graduate and former United States Marine Corps combat officer in the Korean and Vietnam War. Arundel covered Washington, D.C. as a correspondent for CBS News and later The White House for United Press International. 

The founder of Arundel Communications (now ArCom) based near Dulles Airport, he originated the concept of All-news radio at Washington radio station WAVA in 1960.

In 1963, he bought the Loudoun Times Mirror, then the second oldest weekly newspaper in the country, and founded what became Times Community newspapers.

At its peak, Times Community owned 17 Washington-area newspapers with a combined circulation of 270,000.  

In 1982, Arundel bought 500 acres of Fauquier County land in a bankruptcy sale. The bucolic parcel eventually became Great Meadow, an events center, polo facility and steeplechase course that is home to the Virginia Gold Cup.

An avid horsemen, Arundel won the fall International Gold Cup in 1985 and the spring Virginia Gold Cup in 1986 with Sugar Bee.  In 2007 and 2009, Arundel won two more International Gold Cups with Seeyouattheevent.

To read Arundel’s obituary in the Loudoun Time Mirror, click here.

Jackie Onassis, Sugar Bee and Arundel