On September 27th of October, we will be exactly six months from the 2019 Queen’s Cup. The 24th in the lifetime of this fabulous event. This also means that three days from today we are a mere seven months out. That does sound like a lot of time and in some ways you would be correct. It is a full 216 days. However, in the life of the Queen’s Cup, it means we are right in the thick of the action.
At this stage of the year, our beautiful grounds have survived a harsh summer and we are looking at some touch ups to happen during the fall. We will kick into gear here with painting, trimming, mowing and seeding. As I have said many times, we have great partners to thank for helping us to do all of this. TruGreen, Mineral Springs Fertilizer and Sherwin Williams and a big part of keeping this beautiful around here.
Beyond that, we spend time counting our inventory. Not only what spaces we have left (not many by the way) but how are we for signs and sign posts, banners, tailgate posts, rope, paper, envelopes, stamps, office supplies and marketing material. If any of these items falls short when we need them 7 months from now, it will be too late in the day to think about replacing them.
We also have to think about ways to get new people involved. Last year was a great year for us and that has led to more people wanting to be part of the event next year. This, then means that we have to analyze how to do that without losing the feel that the day has. We always try to balance the experience of the day vs the potential exposure. This is not always easy.
You might have noticed that I have not mentioned horses as of yet. Well, they are too, something that we think deeply about at this time of year. We already know about our $150,000 in purse money but what can we do to ensure that we have as many top class horses as possible running for the purse money. This comes down to the rules and regulations of the races themselves. Some of the races have age restrictions, some of experience restrictions and some have no restriction at all but there are race meets on every week of the spring and having too many similar races on the calendar can hinder your ability to fill the race with horses.
Now, adding all of this up and then take into consideration that we have Halloween, Thanks Giving, Christmas, Easter and plenty of Government Holidays the those seven months don’t seem like long enough.
We are counting down the days, we hope you are too. See you at the races.