Race Day!

@ Saratoga in a favorite Peter Beaton hat!

I love going to the Races!

Not because I am into gaming or gambling. No, no, I am hopeless in that regard. I just like the accoutrements surrounding horse racing. The colors, the excitement and ... okay, I love the hats! Doesn't matter that I don't even participate in the betting. (I never do actually unless I know a horse owner or it will directly benefit a charity.)

My fascination with horse racing started innocently and early. One of my dearest friends in high school in Florida was a girl named Gena. Gena was originally from Oklahoma and her family raised horses there before moving to another horse ranch in Florida. I spent many a great day bareback riding at the family's ranch with Gena and her twin brother Ralph.

Gena was also a quarter horse jockey and I spent many a great day hanging at the race tracks too watching her race! Tracks like Pompano, FL and Valdosta, GA. That may be where I acquired my fascination with the world of horse racing, but it is also where I got my skepticism about betting. I saw a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes at the quarter horse tracks that would belie the notion of an even playing field for the casual better.

accoutrements

But thoroughbred horse racing is probably more strictly regulated and besides, it has better hats! I wore a hat in the cheap seats at the Kentucky Derby, a petit chapeau at the Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp and a Peter Beaton hat in Mary Lou Whitney's box once at Saratoga when I went to see my friends' horse race. Right behind George Pataki in the Governor's box. Kind of like our version of the British Royal Enclosure ... where I also wore a hat once at Ascot!

It was right after college and I was going to be traveling through Europe that summer with my college friend Laura to do the Grand Tour when I read in the Travel section of the NY Times one Sunday that "it was easier for an American to sit in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot than for a British citizen." The article went on to say that all I had to do was write the American Embassy to request tickets. Okay. Laura and I were going to be in London during Ascot. So I wrote the Embassy. "Could I have two tickets please?" "Sure" they said. "All you will need is a personal letter from the President of the United States or from two Senators or Congressman vouching for you." That's all, huh?

Now that might have given pause to someone else, but not moi. I explained my predicament to my father who was living in Fairfax, VA at the time where he was Director of Marketing for RCA in Washington DC. Can you help? RCA had just put the satellite connection into Congress to broadcast the Congressional hearings we were soon watching on C-SPAN. He said he could ask a couple of Senators or Congressman he had been working with to write letters for Laura and I.

He did. And they did. And the next thing you know we got a letter in the mail inviting us to pick up our tickets from the American Embassy at Grosvenor Square in London. Hats and gloves were required. Our dresses could not be above the knee and no décolletage or bare shoulders. No problem! We saw the Queen and Prince Phillip and Prince Charles up close, met many lords and ladies, drank buckets of Pimms Cups and ate heaps of strawberries and cream. Oh yeah and there were horses too.

my dogs made great accessories

One of my favorite race days though was always the annual Far Hills Race Meeting in Somerset County, NJ or what we called "The Hunt" for some reason. I don't know why we called it The Hunt since it was definitely not a hunt. It was a steeplechase race. But everybody called it "The Hunt" so we did too.

The best part about The Hunt (for me) were the elaborate tablescapes and centerpieces that everyone put together in their "parking spaces" surrounding the racecourse. It was the ultimate horsey set tail gate party. Some people even brought bands with amplification and set up elaborate bloody mary bars with vodka ice luges.

We rented one or two spaces with friends for many years. We would have organizational meetings weeks in advance to plan the menus and divvy up the list of responsibilities for supplies, food and drinks.

Then one year I was invited to stop by the Range Rover corporate tent by my Land Rover salesman. Wow! A fabulous spread under a heated marquee with elaborate decorations and all the bloodys I could drink without the muss and fuss and time-consuming planning. After that, I only went to The Hunt if I was invited to someone's corporate tent. And there was always someone to wrangle an invite from!

@ the starting line

So I was definitely looking forward to my first Race Day in South Africa at Turffontein Race Course. The featured race was the Joburg Spring Challenge. The track at Turffontein was founded in 1887 by the Johannesburg Turf Club and is the home of thoroughbred racing in Joburg.

We were invited to the races by the Monday Club, a fundraising group who donates 100% of its profits to the charities it supports. Proceeds from the Race Day event were in aid of SARDA (the SA Riding Association for the Disabled - Gauteng.)

Hats required! I brought exactly one hat with me to South Africa, a versatile 100% raffia hat I bought in Palm Beach years ago. It did just fine.

Trying to read the racing sheets
(Thanks for the picture, Olga!)

Vince and I tried our hand at betting. I go by color. Specifically the colors of the jockeys' silks. Pink did not do well that day. Once Vince went off on his own, he did much much better and we ended up about even on the day. Which was more than we deserved.

Joburg's equivalent of the Kentucky Derby is the SANSUI Summer Cup which is on November 30 this year. The theme is Colour to Conquer and will benefit the Rainbow Foundation. 

I am definitely going to have to get a new hat!