2009 Foxfield Spring Races
The weather treated the thousands of party-goers in the infield pretty well — it was 90+ degrees and sunny. The racing was fun and also sad when a horse had to be put down for breaking his leg. Toughkenamon jockeyed by Carl Rafter, pictured above on the second of three laps of his race, had his trail leg hit the timbers on the final jump of the race. It was a hard thing to watch and photograph. Needless to say, the rest of the day was a lot of fun — people in crazy outfits, watching students get drunk at 10AM in the morning and lots of beautiful horses (including the very successful Good Night Shirt).
Estimates were that 23,500 fans attended the races. There were new alcohol rules in place designed to limit the amount of consumption — namely the size of coolers were restricted, glass bottles prohibited, and random ID checks throughout the day replaced over 21 bracelets. From what I observed, that didn’t really have much of an effect on the party — people got drunk, some people got way too drunk, some people did stupid things and got arrested. Seems to happen every year.
2009 Foxfield Spring Races – Images by Jason O. Watson
A great night in Charlottesville – Dave Matthews Band
Tonight was a night that I was looking forward to for a long time. Putting objective photojournalism aside, I have always wanted to photograph Dave Matthews and his band. I’ve been a fan since the early 1990’s, following DMB all over Virginia, DC, NC, NY, and points in between. I’ve missed that last few opportunities to shoot Dave and the guys in Charlottesville and tonight was special (at least for me).
I’ve watched Dave and Co. at least a dozen times — but none since 2003 (front row seats at Madison Square Garden). Tonight was the first time the band has performed in Charlottesville since LeRoi Moore’s tragic passing in August 2008… and from what I was able to photograph (the first 3 songs of the set), the band still continues to entertain. LeRoi’s presence is certainly missed (I can’t imagine anyone replacing him, especially on songs like “Don’t Drink the Water”). Much to my delight, instead of starting with a fresh batch of new songs from the latest album, the band opened the show with old-time favorites “Rapunzel”, “Satellite”, and “When the World Ends”. Here are a few of my shots from the show… I’m going to buy a ticket and sit in the stands for tomorrow’s show – it was that good. 
Dave Matthews Band, Charlottesville 2009
20090417 – Dave Matthews Band (Music) – Images by Jason O. Watson
A Not-so Friendly Spring NCAA Soccer Game
This past weekend, NC State scrimmaged Virginia in a spring “friendly”. In the first half, there was a scuffle where Chrystel Bakong (8) from NCSU got into a mix up with UVA’s Jonathan Villaneuva (10). Here Bakong can be seen putting the choak on Johnny V… amazingly the official only showed Bakong a yellow. NC State went on to win the match on a second free kick just outside the 18 yard box that went over UVA’s wall and pretty much the keeper didn’t see it until too late…
More images from the UVA / NC State spring soccer game
20090404 – NC State at Virginia (NCAA Soccer) – Images by Jason O. Watson
Tony Bennett introduced as UVA’s new basketball coach
Today was UVA’s unveiling of it’s new men’s basketball coach, Tony Bennett. The whole festivities included a packed dining room at JPJ full of reporters, tv news folks, and a handful of photogs and lasted a little over an hour. I was really impressed with Mr. Bennett and liked that he actually answered the reporters questions with a degree of thoughtfulness and sincerity. It was cool that his family was there too — they seemed pretty happy with the whole thing, although I’m sure his kids were getting a little bored as the questions wore on.
