Photo courtesy of Virginia Gold Cup
The Virginia Gold Cup is set for May 3 in The Plains, Va.
Snag your tickets for the Virginia Gold Cup, happening Saturday, May 3 at Great Meadow in the Plains. The oldest and largest steeplechase event celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025. The Plains is about an hour from Alexandria.
Spectators come out to socialize, entertain, and participate in the competitive hat contest, where
Photo courtesy of Virginia Gold Cup
Fancy hats are just part of the fun at the Virginia Gold Cup, taking place May 3 in The Plains, Va.
celebrity judges will choose their favorites—this is also a fun spectator sport, as the over-the-top hats tend to be extremely entertaining. Tailgating is another big part of the fun.
Find ticket information here. Find more information about the big day here.
Image courtesy of Virginia Gold Cup
The Virginia Gold Cup takes place May 3. Tickets are on sale now.
The legendary annual Virginia Gold Cup steeplechasing classic, now run before a sellout crowd of over 60,000 people, comes from much simpler beginnings.
Here's more about the history of the event, from Virginia Gold Cup:
Steeplechasing in Virginia has been a way of life since early Colonial times when the horse was the primary way of transportation, farming and war. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson met in sporting competition over fences. Organized steeplechase races have run in Fauquier County since 1844 originally at White Sulphur Springs then a fashionable spa near Warrenton.
On April 3, 1922, eight sportsmen met at the Fauquier Club in Warrenton and decided to organize a four-mile race between flags over the natural walls and fences of the nearby hunting countryside. Pledging $1,000 to purchase a trophy for the winning owner, they ruled that it be kept permanently by the first owner to win the race three times, not necessarily in consecutive years nor with the same horse. Just 34 days later, they held the first Virginia Gold Cup race.
From its beginning, the race was intended to be a national event drawing “the best hunters in America.” Unlike today’s seven-race card, that first Virginia Gold Cup was a single-race event, riders to be “gentlemen wearing racing colors or officers of the U.S. Army in uniform.” Nine horses competed that May at Oakwood, the great estate on Waterloo Road near Warrenton overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains and once owned by President Lincoln’s personal physician, Dr. Robert King Stone.
See you there!
