Randy Goulding: The Cup is close to a sellout as people are dusting off their best duds for a day at the races.
When Dax Droski, Tyson Villenueve and Jordan Kallman decided to celebrate Droski’s birthday at Hastings Racecourse 14 years ago, they had no idea the party would morph into one of the biggest social events in Vancouver.
Droski owns Parade Agency. Villenueve and Kallman own The Social Concierge. The two event-creating and marketing companies are the co-founding partners and organizers of The Cup.
The Cup returns to Hastings on Saturday and, from all appearances, it is bigger and better than ever.
“It started out as my birthday party with a couple of hundred friends,” said Droski. “We had so much fun we thought it would be a good idea to expand it into an annual event. I don’t know if I would call it the biggest social event of the year in Vancouver, but it is the most stylish outdoor event.”
Droski has been a fan of horse racing most of his life. He grew up in Ontario and his family were regulars at the Fort Erie Race Track.
“I enjoyed going to Fort Erie with my parents and I thought Hastings would be a great place to celebrate my birthday,” he said. “I love going to Hastings, which is the most picturesque track in North America and a perfect place to have an event like The Cup.”
The Cup is almost a sellout with 95 per cent of the tickets already sold, and forget about trying to get a group into one of the suites, they’re already all gone. On The Cup’s website, comegetfancy.com, there appears to be one table left at Kissa Tanto, which seats eight people for $2,994 plus tax and service. Kissa Tanto is a Michelin star restaurant in Chinatown.
“We are proud to have a restaurant like Kissa Tanto as part of The Cup experience,” said Villenueve. “We are also trying to promote young upcoming chefs like Giampaolo Posteraro of Prosciutto & Friends. The food will be fantastic and as usual we have great mixologists.”
Droski added that Hastings is a large site so there will be general admission tickets available.
“It’s a big production, but worth all the work that goes into it,” said Droski. “We couldn’t do it without the support of the great team at Hastings, and I can’t say enough about the support from the British Columbia Lottery Corp. And groups like Anthem Properties which is having a private event for over 200 people in Silks.”
There is also live music with Brandi Cyrus, Young Bombs and Johnny Jover.
Adding to it all is a chance for someone to become the Face of The Cup and earn $1,000. The contest for the most stylishly dressed is being held at the Style Stakes Runway with secondary prizes of $500, $300 and $200.
On top of it all is a strong eight-race card that beings at 2 p.m. The average field size is easily the largest of the year. Helping in that regard, there is no racing Friday.
RACING SELECTIONS
RACE 2: ASKMENOQUESTIONS romped going short in his first start for trainer Edgar Mendoza, and is capable of carrying his speed around three turns. He could be gone if he breaks on top with leading rider Amadeo Perez aboard.
RACE 4: ARTISTIC JEWLER comes off a solid effort behind tougher company and stands out from a Beyer Speed Figure perspective. Her usual rider, Antonio Reyes, sticks and she figures to be tough to beat if she stays in the zone for trainer Barbara Heads.
RACE 8: ACCORDINGLY is stepping above his conditions in this $5,000 N3L ,but he just missed in his only try at this distance and he was facing $30,000 N3L so he should be fine here. It’s also hard to ignore the strong statistics Perez has riding for trainer Mark Cloutier: 28 per cent the past five years, according to Daily Racing Form’s Formulator.
Randy Goulding has been handicapping horses and writing for The Racing Form at Hastings Park for more than 30 years. His column will run every Friday throughout the racing season.
Source: Vancouver SUN
