It's that time again. As always, the girls will wear their summer dresses and entire fraternities will crowd onto buses to attend the event. Tomorrow, 23,000 people will flock to the traditional spring running of the Foxfield races.
This year, however, may be different from previous years.
"There are a lot differences this year," Race Director W. Patrick Butterfield said. "There will be a stepped up presence of police officers."
Albemarle County Police will handle parking and traffic outside the event, while Virginia ABC officials and Foxfield's private security force will patrol inside the venue.
"We are going to be there to ID, to monitor and to take action as needed," said Becky Gettings, director of public affairs at ABC.
Albemarle County Spokesperson Lee Catlin said she expects students to notice the heightened security at this year's races.
"All of the messages we are getting is that there is going to be a very close look at underage drinking and dangerous and abusive drinking inside the event," she said. "I think people can expect to see some real scrutiny."
There will be a "big crackdown" on underage drinking this Saturday, Butterfield said. Security will be checking the contents of student's containers and coolers.
"There will be 50 ABC agents on the grounds and they are primarily interested in preventing underage drinking," he said. "They will be stopping people asking them to open their cooler, carding them, if they are underage, they will confiscate the liquor and if people arrive here and are drunk they will be taken to jail."
If conduct at the races is not improved this year, Foxfield may not be able to afford to continue its events in the years to come, Butterfield said. This year, Foxfield has had to pay an increased sum of money for additional security as well as $8,000 to pay for the investigation into last year's underage drinking.
"We may not be able to survive all of these burdens," he said. "It is not chic to puke at Foxfields. It is incredibly offensive and people are tired of it."
Beginning with a report filed by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control on May 31, 2002, Virginia ABC and Foxfield have spent the past year resolving a dispute over Foxfield's Equine Sporting Event license. Eventually, Virginia ABC upheld a decision to formally suspend the license for 15 months in response to underage drinking and rowdy behavior at last year's races.
The final order of a court hearing held April 15 in Richmond stated that, although their license technically was suspended, the suspension period would not have to be served if Foxfield agreed to increase security at the event, Gettings said.
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