New Jersey lives it up at the races

I first covered this meet three years ago. I was expecting to see the older, moneyed class enjoying a stiff, formal day of watching the races.

On one side of the tracks, the Hill, it’s more or less exactly that.

Renting a spot and holding a party here can cost tens of thousands of dollars, with champagne often flowing during elegant picnics.

There’s a home-from-home feel to the place, complete with hay bales, wicker picnic baskets, tables and chairs.

Over and over I was given the advice: “Don’t go into the Pit,” as locals refer to the younger, more rowdy side of the tracks. “It’s a mess over there.”

Of course I went. I was surprised to see thousands of young people getting wasted on alcohol. Or as they might say on the other side, drinking wisely but too well.

Returning to the Hill later, a conservatively dressed woman, who looked to be in her 60s, shuddered and said to me, “Oh, you survived?”

It’s not quite never the twain shall meet but there’s certainly not much interaction between Hill and Pit.

In the Pit, some said this one-day event is better than Christmas. Fraternities and sororities from all over New Jersey and nearby states rent an area, spending thousands of dollars to load up a car with alcohol and then drink the makeshift bar dry.

Or consume it straight from the bottle, out of a beer keg or through a giant block of ice.

When I asked people there if they ever watch the races, many said with a wink, “Oh, there are horse races going on?”

The first time I went to Far Hills, three years ago, I was the only professional photographer in the Pit and people were very open. The year after, when some had seen my photos, some were hostile, saying “no press.”

One young woman’s father vetoed her summer trip to Europe after seeing the photo I had taken of her at the races, she told me this year. Even so, she invited me to capture her at it again.

The organisers are more aware now of the Pit and its goings-on and have tried to rein in the debauchery. A couple of years back they introduced a rule so that only drivers can bring in alcohol, not those arriving by train.

The number of arrests this year has fallen to 37, about the same as last year, from 55 in 2013, local media reported.

Even so, the scale of alcohol consumption, on both sides of the track, is something to behold. By the end of the day in the Pit you see some men fighting or women crying on the ground. They’ve clearly overdone it.

As the years go by, some of the revellers in the Pit now might even graduate to a spot up on the other side of the track.

Whether or not they’ll shudder at the mention of the Pit, well that’s another matter.