Foxfield is my absolute favorite day of the year, even more so than Christmas. Like the holidays my entire family and our friends all congregate to eat, drink and make merry. But unlike Christmas no one holds it against you if you have a little to much to drink, heck it‘s expected! So long as you can still shake hands and say “how do you do” with out falling off your kitten heels nobody really minds. And if they do, it’s forgotten by the time you get to the after party and someone else is drunk enough to go skinny dipping in the Koi pond.

Foxfield has always been a family affair and I guess you could even say Steeplechasing is in my blood. My dad was friends with the course designer and helped build the original hurdle course. My Grandmother owned a rather lack luster Steeplechaser that won it’s only race at Foxfield. My late Grandfather used to be the Timer for the races and my father has since stepped up to fill the post.

But the best part about going to the races was when Grandma “Posy” would pull out her wallet and hand it to me with the condition that I was the bookie for the day. I’d set up shop in the back of her old red “Woody” Jeep Grand Wagoner and take bets from our neighboring tailgates. For a dollar you could have your pick of a horse. It’s amazing how heady it is winning eleven dollars when you’re eight years old. Of course being 21 and hitting a trifecta (where you pick the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place horses to cross the finish in a single race), and winning $1,154.78 off a six dollar bet at the Saratoga Summer meet in New York sealed my fate and I have been an avid handicapper ever since.

So fellow Cvillians, as your resident “horse expert” I am here to share my knowledge and give you the edge for your own Foxfield tailgate this weekend. Whether it’s dollar bets on each horse or something else entirely (go ahead, be creative…), I’m here to decode the Foxfield program and shed some light who’s hot and who’s not.

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