Tailgates at the annual Foxfield Spring Races in Albemarle County.
Photos by Rick Stallings
Make no mistake, some races are as much about the tailgate as they are about the horses, and the Foxfield Spring Races are no exception. This is particularly true for the busloads of UVA students bedecked in bow ties and pastel sundresses who have made it a rite of passage to trek to Albemarle’s horse country for a day of racing and making merry. Theirs is just one of many traditions surrounding Foxfield, which this year celebrates the 40th running.
The Foxfield property has a long equestrian history. Site of the Albermarle County airport in the 1930s, the land was purchased by well-known horseman Grover Vandevener, huntsman for the Farmington Hunt Club, which at the time was adjacent to the property. He called it Fox Fields.
Vandevener taught students to ride, and, it is said, entertained many notable visitors there. They included William Faulkner, who in the late 1950s was author-in-residence at UVA.
Mariann de Tejeda purchased the property from her friend Vandevener in 1973, and in 1977, established Foxfield Racing with the intent to preserve its 137 acres for steeplechase. That year, de Tejeda, a longtime benefactress of equestrian pursuits in the region, worked with Raymond G. Woolfe Jr., author of Secretariat, to design and build the racecourse. When de Tejeda died in 1983, her will indicated the property should be held in trust for the continuation of the races. To that end, in 1987, the property passed into the hands of Foxfield Racing.
Patrick Butterfield, Foxfield’s director of racing since 1990, has attended 79 of its 80 races and directed 54. “To race at Foxfield,” he says, “you have to know how to ride, and your horse needs to be fit.” The first jump is right in front of the crowd. The course then turns downhill and through the “chute,” continuing over rolling hills toward the flat stretch of the finish line where revelers line the rails, their tailgate parties—like Virginia’s other steeplechase races—often continuing long past the race card’s final test. The Spring Races will be held Saturday, April 29, 2017. FoxfieldRaces.com
