The Virginia Gold Cup and International Gold Cup steeplechase races are a celebration of hunt country tradition and two of the largest, most celebrated outdoor social events held in Virginia.
The Virginia Gold Cup is held the first Saturday of May at Great Meadow in The Plains, Virginia. The races have been held in Fauquier County, Virginia since 1922.
The International Gold Cup is the featured horse racing event of the Fall season and is managed today by the Virginia Gold Cup Association. Now held on the third Saturday of October, the International Gold Cup was originally founded in Tennessee in 1930.
The Virginia Gold Cup event was generated by eight sportsmen who met at the Fauquier Club in Warrenton and organized a four-mile race alongside the natural walls and fences of the nearby hunting countryside on April 3, 1922 and thirty four days later was the first Virginia Gold Cup race.
According to the Official Gold Cup Website “over 45,000 spectators attend this event and this race is one of the largest and most popular sporting events in the greater Washington metropolitan area”.
Additional activities include terrier and pony races before the main event, hat contests on Members Hill, vendor tents and booths, parachute demonstrations, classic and new car displays, and countless tailgates.
Viewing areas are divided into three basic sections: North Rail, South Rail, and Members Hill. Members Hill overlooks Winners Circle and has the best view of the course. All three sections include private tents, public viewing areas, and tailgate spaces. North Rail is geared more toward young professionals and social groups; South Rail is where most corporate tents and family-oriented outings congregate.
Famous quotes containing the words gold and/or cup:
“Daughter to that good Earl, once President
Of England’s Council and her Treasury,
Who lived in both, unstain’d with gold or fee,
And left them both, more in himself content.
Till the sad breaking of that Parliament
Broke him, as that dishonest victory
At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty,
Kill’d with report that old man eloquent;—”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“In poorer lands
No one touches the water of life.
It has no taste
And though it refreshes absolutely
It is a cup that must also pass
Until everybody
Gets some advantage....”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)