Every year on the last Saturday in April, the annual Queen’s Cup Steeplechase (what’s a Steeplechase?) comes to a tiny town about 45 minutes south of Charlotte.  I’ve never been to a race before, so Tonya and I decided to get some tailgating passes (which actually turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve made as of late…that’s where the real party is at) and make a day of it.  Gas grill?  Check.  Plenty of food and booze?  Check.  It turned out to be the most fun I’ve had in quite a while as I haven’t really made it out much lately…in short, it was phenomenal.

The spot we ended up getting was perfect…even though they were (sort of) the cheap seats, we got lucky and were put pretty much on the first row with an amazing view of the racetrack; we could easily see about 3/4 of the entire track, plus we could of course walk wherever we wanted to go to get closer to the action.  We were also lucky enough to get there right as the racing started (there were 6 races total).  The first thing we did was get as close to the finish line as possible for the first race…it was pretty amazing how close we actually could get to the track; you could almost reach out and touch the racers as they zoomed by.

We made it over to the paddock to watch the horses come in for the 2nd race, and my first thought was “holy shit, these animals are huge!!!”  I rode horses for 3 years when I was younger (English style for anyone keeping score); these thoroughbreds were easily a couple of feet taller than anything I rode.  And of course they were immaculately groomed and almost seemed to shimmer in the sunlight.  They were absolutely beautiful though…and yes, jockeys really are as little as they look on TV.

I did manage to snap off some pictures and shoot some videos of the races (not my best work, the light was very flat throughout the day), so feel free to have a look.  They do no justice to how fast these animals are though…most of them did the 2 1/4 mile lap in a little under 3 minutes, nor how awesome they looked as they ran.  This will definitely be a yearly must-do event.  We were a little disappointed that we missed the Jack Russell Terrier races though.  I can only get up so early on a Saturday morning after a long week, but maybe next year.  If you’ve never been to a steeplechase race before, highly recommended.  I’m definitely addicted now, and hope to attend some more races this year.

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