Living Social Gold Cup Deal!

 Waited to decide what to do for Gold Cup?  Lucky you!  Living Social has the following deal posted:

"For just $145, the 86th annual world famous steeplechase in The Plains, Virginia gives you a starring role on May 7 with half off four VIP Members Hill Badges to the event, one North or South Rail Parking Pass, four official Gold Cup souvenir cups, and postage and handling of tickets (a $290 value)."

Hurry - the deal ends soon!

Invitation from University of Richmond

Our friends at University of Richmond have invited JMU alums to attend University Row at Virginia Gold Cup. Here is the UofR sales link and a discount offer for volunteering:

http://www.showclix.com/event/33433/

"University Row is volunteer-run. If you volunteer for a day-of shift,
you are eligible for a discounted ticket! To sign up, visit the
volunteer link below and email Braxton Bragg
(bragg.braxton@gmail.com); he will provide you with discount
information that you may apply toward your ticket purchase.

Richmond:http://www2.mysignup.com/richmonduniversityrow
Password: horses"

The End of an Era

We've got some good news and some bad news.  First the bad news.  JMU's Office of Alumni Relations has decided to withdraw funding support for the MetroDukes Virginia Gold Cup event.  As you know, we have always priced our tickets at cost to keep prices as affordable as possible for our alums.  As a result, the event has never been a fundraiser for the MetroDukes.  In this bad economy, the Office of Alumni Relations wants to focus efforts on events with more fundraising potential. 

What's the good news?  You don't need us to go to Gold Cup and there are still tickets available!  Here is our advice for a great race day experience with your friends.  Get a North Rail car pass ($85) which gets your car, your friends, your food, and plenty of beverages in non-glass containers into Great Meadows.  When you get there, go all the way to the end of the North Rail - to the left if you're facing the races.  There, just past the tents, is an open space right along the rail.  If you get there right when gates open, you have a perfect, unobstructed view of the races!  If you pack the max 6 people in your car, it's only $14 per person!

If you have a bigger group and want a reserved spot, you can snag a 12 x 20 reserved rail parking spot in Row 1 on the South Rail for $525, nice and close to the races.  The reserved rail parking also comes with two additional car passes, and 6 Members Hill badges which can be shared.  If you pack the max 15 people in there, it's only $35 per person!

Don't want to drive?  No problem!  Lindy can hook you up with roundtrip bus transportation from Arlington or DC for $45 - but buy tickets soon because the price goes up as the event gets closer!

JMU alums have had a party at Gold Cup for the past 12 years (at least!), and we're sad to see our official event end.  We know you'll keep the JMU party going though!  If you want to link up with fellow alums going to the race, join our Facebook group JMU at Virginia Gold Cup and use the space to organize!

Don't forget to keep supporting the MetroDukes!  The MetroDukes are working hard on some new initiatives.  Stay up to date by friending the MetroDukes Chapter on Facebook.

Getting Excited for Gold Cup!

Hi everyone!  Snow is on the ground and Gold Cup seems a long way away, but we just got our tent renewal information from the Virginia Gold Cup Association, which means plans for 2011 are now underway!  We got some great feedback after the event last year, but we welcome your thoughts any time on how to make this event better than ever.  Leave a comment or shoot us a note if you have any ideas.

To get you in the race spirit in the middle of winter, we suggest using snow as the perfect crushed ice in your winter mint juleps!  Avoid the yellow snow!

Happy Holidays!

Crabfest 2010!

The MetroDukes have lots of great events to pass the time between Gold Cups, but none is bigger than Crabfest!  If you've never been, Crabfest is best described as an all-you-can-eat, 6 hour, claw cracking, beer swilling bonanza!  What more needs to be said??  Crabfest will be September 18, but you want to register early to take advantage of the $16 discount.  Before Sept. 3 tickets are only $29!  Steal!  Get more details and buy tickets here.

Time to buy your own cornhole set!

With warm sunny weather on us and tailgating season coming up in the fall, it's time you got your own cornhole set! We got our set from Baggo and we LOVE those guys! First, the set is great. The boards pack up flat with pockets for the bags, latch together, and carry like a suitcase making it the easiest set to transport and store. It has a built-in score keeper running along the side, and customizable and replaceable screens to cover the board. If you want to customize your board, the graphics designers are very creative and easy to work with. We love the design they came up with for us! Because Baggo boards are made of slick durable plastic, playing on a Baggo board requires extra skill and strategy to work with the slide of the bags on the board, so it's more fun than playing on wood. A customized set is only $120, so check them out at www.baggo.com!

Bubble Economy Wins the Virginia Gold Cup Again!

The Steeplechase Times has the full story here.  Scuba Steve was still our favorite horse of the day though!

Gold Cup Recovery in Effect

Hope everyone is having a great Gold Cup Recovery Day! Thanks again everyone for coming out and making this such a great event and a special thanks to our amazing volunteers for all of their great work!  We'll be sending out a post-event e-mail to everyone to get your feedback on the event so we can make the event even better next year. Let us know what you think because this is YOUR event! We have pictures from the event up on our Picasa site (you can link to the album from the slideshow to the right) and on our JMU at Virginia Gold Cup Facebook group page.

Congrats to our Best Dressed Contest winners and a big thank you to Bailey's for the fantastic prizes and for hooking us all up with free passes to their fight event!  We also need to thank JMU alum-owned Legends catering for all of their hard work, delicious food, and amazing mint juleps!

Of course, we have to give a final shout out to our event security, Bill, aka Life of the Party!  Thanks Bill!

The Final Countdown! Gold Cup Tomorrow!

We've had huge response this year and we're so excited to see everyone tomorrow and get those mint juleps flowing! Not only do we have a record number of JMU alums attending our first solo event in over a decade, but we have a lot of friends of JMU coming as well! Shout out to our friends from Virginia Tech, George Mason, William and Mary, George Washington, Randolph Macon, Longwood, ODU, Pitt, Penn, Princeton, Harvard, UNC, UMass, West Point, WVU, Johns Hopkins, Florida Atlantic, Queens, Cornell, Bucknell, Baylor, Lycoming, South Carolina, Clemson, Michigan State, Tennesee, Tampa, Wilkes, Miami, Lehigh, UConn, Tufts, the College of Saint Rose, SUNY Cortland, and Nebraska! WOW! Welcome everyone!!

I'll Have What He's Having

More Cowbell!

In order to get everyone's attention on race day we decided that we needed to have a cowbell.  Of course.  We called around to several music stores (turns out they all carry them) and here is a conversation we just had:

"Hello do you carry cowbells?"
"Yes we do!  Who is the cowbell player?"
"Me."
"Are you an experienced cowbell player or just starting out?"
"This is my first cowbell."
"Will you need a two tone cowbell?"
"No I just need a basic cowbell to hit to herd people."
"Fantastic."

Shout out to Alexandria Music for giving us half off our cowbell!

The National Gallery of Art Explains the Drama of Steeplechase

The Virginia Gold Cup typically falls on the same weekend as the Kentucky Derby, and while it might not be quite as epic as The Run for the Roses, Gold Cup is just as exciting!  If you think we exaggerate, consider that steeplechase racing is one of the most dangerous sports out there.  The National Gallery of Art features this incredible painting by Degas and explains:

"Unlike horse racing on the flats, a steeplechase is a risky obstacle course. The French version is based on the English and Irish steeplechase, which is an informal race run in the countryside. A group of men on horseback would choose a steeple--a visible, fixed goal--and race toward it, riding over everything--bridges, fences, hedges, and streams--between the starting point and the end. People fell, frequently injuring or even killing themselves. In France "le steeplechase" was a somewhat more organized event, with a specific distance and course. It was very much a gentleman's race, designed for aristocrats, not for professional jockeys, and was a way for men to demonstrate their sangfroid, their ability to keep a cool head in dangerous circumstances. Certain places specialized in steeplechases, including Le-Pin, a racetrack in Normandy near the estate of the Valpinçons, friends whom Degas frequently visited. 

In the early 1860s there were a few paintings at the Salon showing the steeplechase, but no one had painted anything like this. Instead of a modest genre painting of "a gentleman's race," it is epic, ambitious, and full of high drama. Degas has taken an ordinary event--the steeplechase--and turned it into a history painting. It's Alexander and Bucephalus, but in reverse. In this battle between man and horse--man and nature--man has lost. A fallen jockey lies in the foreground while the race continues."

Perfect Weather Forecast!

We're one week out and so far the forecast is calling for partly cloudy sunny, highs in the 70s 80s 90s (!) heaven.  It's going to be a beautiful day at the races!  We still have tickets left, so if you haven't bought your tickets yet, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself (yeah you heard that) and click on the sales link now!

New Bailey's pre-party and Best Dressed prize details!

Can't wait to get your Gold Cup party started?  Well Bailey's is here to help!  Bailey's is opening at 8 AM with a $5 breakfast buffet- just tell your server you're with JMU.  Of course, they aren't going to leave you thirsty - Bailey's is offering $4 bloody marys, $4 mimosas, and $4 mojitos!

Bailey's is also going all out for the Best Dressed contest winners - making those gift certificates we advertised earlier full-on VIP party packages!  What does that mean?  5 free apps ($40 average value), a free VIP starter (50 free wings, 3 cheese pizzas, and endless chips and salsa), and 5 free hours of pool ($60 value).  For VIP parties, 10 people must be present - good thing a hundred of your new best friends will be headed back to Bailey's with you at the end of the day, so there won't be any problem meeting that number if you want to turn your prize into a free post-party!  One more weekend left to get that perfect race outfit together to win!

Gold Cup Fashion for the Ladies

Finding the perfect outfit for Gold Cup is a dilemma.  You've got to find the perfect dress, at the right price, and figure out how to avoid wearing the same dress as someone else.  Invite-only online designer sample sale boutiques can be fun places to prowl for something the other ladies might not find.  If you aren't already a member of one or more of these sites, invitations to a few are pasted below.  And gentlemen, there are some sales for you as well!  Happy hunting!

Ideeli
Gilt
RueLaLa
Beyond the Rack
Haute Look

Port-A-Jumping

Some horse racing traditions JMU does NOT encourage at Gold Cup.  Admire the race-inspired enthusiasm though!

Cake Walk Contest with Chef Duff, "Ace of Cakes"

Are you always watching Ace of Cakes and thinking, "I could do that"? Yeah neither are we, but if you think your cake decorating skills are at least enough to match anyone else in the DC area, Chef Duff is helping to host a cake decorating contest at this year's 85th running of the Virginia Gold Cup. The theme of the contest is 'Happy Birthday Gold Cup." You can find all of the rules here. Given that the rules barring store bought sheet cakes and cakes in "poor taste" would knock out any entry we might come up with, another JMUer will have to represent. Applications are being accepted now!

The Tale of Saluter

Gather round to hear the tale of "the undisputed greatest horse in the long history of the Virginia Gold Cup and International Cup" - Saluter. In the spring of 1994, owners Mr. and Mrs. Henry Stern and Jack Fisher entered the five-year-old gelding in the Virginia Gold Cup where he became the youngest Virginia Gold Cup winner since 1953. Saluter started off as a what you might call a Flat Track FAIL and a Jumper FAIL. He was also apparently a mean S.O.B. But Saluter wowed the crowds with amazing come-from-behind finishes, making him a fan favorite. Saluter won 6 consecutive Virginia Gold Cup races and 2 International Cup races. Saluter's course record for the Gold Cup stood for 11 years until 2006 when Kinross Farm's Miles Ahead's time of 8:19 came in just 8 seconds faster. Saluter's rider, Jack Fisher, in turn became the top winning rider at Virginia Gold Cup with nine wins.

“Around the barn, he has always been just a regular horse,” Fisher explains and then points out the “love-hate” relationship the two have always had. “It was like this on the course too,” says Fisher, “I’d ask him to move out and he would sort of snarl for a while, then when he was ready to move ahead, he’d go. And boy, did he move ahead!”

Saluter is now retired, golfing in Florida no doubt (or maybe dead? he would be 21 now so it's hard to say). But in 2008 he made a guest appearance at the races to check out the bronze statue of him erected beside the Great Meadow race course in 2007. Check out this post in the Virginia Thoroughbred Blog for a great article about Steeplechasing's Seabiscuit. Amaze your friends with your steeplechase history saavy!

Holly Morris at Virginia Gold Cup