Steeplechase

Aiken Spring Steeplechase

Once again we had a chance to go to the event of season through the generosity of a friend and fellow Miata Club member. Three years ago he offered the use of his railside spot for the Aiken Spring Steeplechase and 4 people took advantage of it, Donna and I and Dennis & Karol. Since then and now there have been 2 other spring events plus 2 fall events and there has been anywhere from 6 to ten people enjoying this hospitality, always including the original Gang of Four. This year it was only Donna and I. The following is a cross posting of the write-up I did for the Masters Miata Club website.

Seeing as it was just going to be Donna and I attending the Steepelchase, we concocted a plan to just walk over. This would make getting out at the end of the day much quicker, there would be no car to have to drive out one of the only three exits, along with the other 10,000 vehicles at 4:15 PM after the last race.

That plan promptly fell apart on Thursday afternoon when we realized that our Little Red Academy Sports Wagon was over 50% full with just our small gas grill in it. After stacking the two small chairs on top of the grill (the other two, optimistically for guests, would be carried by the person not dragging the wagon) there wasn’t any room left over to take all the other items we needed. There was still a tray of chicken shishkabobs, a bag of hot dogs, cookies, brownies, and chip & dip, and another bag with the tablecloth, condiments, paper plates, bowls, and utensils. Don’t even think about adding the styrofoam cooler with ice and drinks on top of that.

Plan B was implemented. On race day, Brian packed up the gas grill, the 4 chairs and the bag with the tablecloth, condiments, paper plates, bowls, and utensils into the Big Red Mini Cooper Wagon and drove over right at 9:00 AM, when the gates opened. He parked the car and walked the mile home. At 11:00 AM we walked over with cooler and food in the Little Red Academy Sports Wagon. Then maybe after the 4th race they would pack everything into the Big Red Mini Cooper Wagon and drive out the gate with maybe tens of cars.

After we walked over and set everything up, we started eating. Hard not to, with the once or twice a year treat of chips and dip staring right at us. Didn’t help that the tent next door was grilling chicken on their grill. After our pre-meal we walked over towards the finish line to the rail side spot of the company (ASCO) we used to work at, to bring them some of Donna’s chocolate cookies in trade for a drink and to sample some of their bountiful spread. When we got back to spot #471, its owner Tom Varallo, was next door chatting up with the the chicken grilling crew. He talked with us a bit and said he’d probably be done working somewhere between 2 & 3:00 PM and would stop back over for a longer visit. We promised to save him some chicken and a hot dog.

The rest of this timeline and details are hazy, might be old age or it might have been the Moscow Mule I got at the ASCO spot, but two women popped into our rail side spot and asked if we knew a so and so. They were supposed to meet them at spot 471. We of course didn’t because as far as we knew we were the only ones from the Club coming, so we told them maybe they got the number wrong. They hustled off texting madly.

A minute or two later a couple showed up and said their names were Renee and Allen. They had run into this nice man called Tom and explained that they had purchased Guarantor tickets to the VIP tent but were supposed meet someone, but those folks couldn’t get in to the VIP tent. Tom, knowing it was just Donna and I at his spot, told them to meet their friends at #471. At this point in the story we said, “I think they were just here.” “Two women, one older than the other?” we asked. “Yes” We said, “They just went that way maybe you can catch them.” But they didn’t.

Sometime after the first race, two women did show up, a mother, Shirley and her daughter, Kate. The daughter is Renee’s dressage instructor and was accompanied by her boyfriend Eric. They brought with them a couple kinds of chips, a couple kinds of dip and some potent potables. We welcomed them to stay. Eric and Allen were sent across the street to their truck to get some more chairs. Then another mother/daughter team joined our group, Randy and Katelyn. At this point I’m not sure which duo was the one that showed up first. The second pair brought some chicken wings and cookies to add to the smorgasbord. After the second race, Donna and Renee walked across the street to get a cooler that had wine and cookies out of their truck (stuff the guys should have brought)

This is where Plan B dematerialized. We were having too good of a time and the weather was too nice to go home early, so Donna and I stayed with our new found friends until all 6 races were through. Everyone pitched in to cleanup and started packing up. Renee and Allen left. Randy and Katelyn drifted off. Finally then Shirley, Kate and Eric left, leaving Donna and I to wait out the thinning crowd. To kill some time waiting for the roads to clear we made a loop of the inside of the track stopping in at the ASCO tent again for a few minutes. We then tried to stop in at Donna’s Yoga teachers spot to say hello again, but they had already gone.

I guess because this was (supposedly) a Masters Miata Club event, I should mention that Chip Cunningham dropped in for a bit of a chit chat and Tom Varallo did make it back in the afternoon, not to eat though as he was still driving around on a golf cart solving event issues.

2018 Spring Steeplechase

Action Photography by Brian

Action Photography by Brian

Again Tom Varallo offered the Masters Miata Club the use of his rail side spot at the spring steeplechase. We, along with three other couples, enjoyed a fabulous day at the races on our Club President. One other member ducked in to say hi somewhere around the 5th race.

We had grilled chicken and hot dogs to eat along with veggies, fruit and chips to dip. There were cookies for dessert and a retirement cake to top it all off for the club’s latest non-productive member of society. You would think that with the Club logo on the sign right in front of our Miata that it would have brought a question or two about Miatas and/or the club, but you’d be wrong. The Club vehicle that attracted the most attention was our “pick up truck”, a 1987 GMC Caballero owned by Hal & Trudy from the Club.

Between a couple of the races one of Donna’s gym rat friends showed up to chat a bit. We were standing by the rail looking away from the track into our tent and beyond when she asked, “Whose cool car is that.” I almost instinctively said, “It’s ours.”, because this question usually refers to the Miata, but hesitated. I asked, “Which one? The little convertible sports car or the classic 80’s pick up/car mix?” She replied, “The pickup thing.” Hal fielded loads questions about the Caballero from both us and passers by, as well as at least one offer to buy it from him on the spot.

Mark your calendars for Saturday, October 27, 2018 when I’ll regale you with stories of the fall steeplechase too, because Tom has said that the offer to share the spot will be good for as long as we want. Until then here are a couple of images from the spring event:

Chasing Steeples: The Fall Edition


After gifting the Club the use of his spot and tickets for the past two Aiken Spring Steeplechases, this time President Tom gave us the opportunity to attend the Fall Steeplechase. He donated to us the spot for one vehicle with two extra parking passes in case someone didn’t want to meet at our house and walk over, plus a dozen tickets to get in the gate.

Six club members claimed the tickets right off, us, Karol & Dennis Mason and Emilie & Kirill Skliar, and maybe because it was sort of last minute, no one else piped up. The six of us that were going started looking for guests to bring because we didn’t want Mr. Varallo’s largess to go unused. By Friday we thought we had all but one spoken for. But by Saturday we only had one guest use a ticket to get in, a friend of Karol & Dennis’s, named Lee. Sigh. Their loss.

On Thursday Donna and I had to run an errand, so we cruised by the field to see if we could eyeball where spot #262 was and were excited to see it was near a jump. It wasn’t until we got there Saturday morning to set up that we realized it was right at the jump. As before with previous steeplechases the Bogarduses and Masons arrived practically as the event gates opened to set up. Soon the other spots started to fill up too. As our direct neighbors arrived, we traded introductions and offered up food and drink. They reciprocated to be friendly and because everyone always brings way more than they need to these events.

We had two portable grills (one charcoal, one gas) setup for cooking the hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken & vegetable shish kabobs. There were Fritos and a couple bags of chips with about four different kinds of dip to nibble on. There were crackers, cheese, sliced ham and venison sausage for grazing, with brownies and an Italian raisin bread for your sweet tooth. To drink we had iced tea, soft drinks/mixers, beer, Jack Daniels, Vanilla Crown Royal and a bit of bubbly.

Spot #262 was not only right at the exit of a jump, but as it turned out, in 4 of the 5 races, the horses lined up to start right in front of us. Unlike flat races where the horses are slotted into a starting gate, in steeplechase they parade from the paddock and then line up in reverse start order behind a judge who then walks them in a line towards the rail. There they do a left face maneuver, so when another judge (on foot) waves the red flag, they take off sort of like they just came out of a gate. Because these are naturally skittish thoroughbred race horses it never goes smoothly, yet somehow they always end up with a reasonably straight start.

In between the first and second race we had some special guests arrive to liven up our tent with youth and conversation, Courtney (Lee’s daughter), along with her friends Little Courtney, somebody possibly named Bridget and a couple others. We fed them some of our food and we helped ourselves to some of their liquor. They watched the carriage parade with us, then the second race, and just as quickly as they came, they disappeared. Left behind the booze though, so we knew they’d be back.

In between the third and fourth race a fellow MMC member Chip was on his way to somewhere when he noticed the Club sign in front of Dennis’s truck, so he stayed long enough to say hello before he too disappeared. In between the fourth and final race Emilie & Kirill headed over into the infield to walk through the shops and take in some of the pageantry that is steeplechase, which Donna and I and the Mason’s had already done earlier.

Emilie & Kirill came back after the fifth and final race finished. Not long after, Little Courtney and Bridget popped back in to join us as we all whiled away some time waiting for the crowd of hurry-homes to disperse some before attempting our own exit. Bridget got Dennis to pop the cork on her bottle of sparkling wine and the nine of us toasted another fantastic day at the races in Aiken. We couldn’t have asked for better weather or a better spot to watch the races. Thanks Tom!