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ig news...Erik and Amanda Scheps of Middleburg have announced the engagement of their daughter, Sophie Francis Scheps, to Joseph Sebastian Langenberg Manson, son of Joseph Manson and Margriet Langenberg of Amissville. Sophie, a graduate of the University of Virginia, is currently a contributing
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he man behind the Doc Saffer Dinner and a Dive In-Movie series at the Middleburg Community Center was the late Doc Saffer, a much loved native on of the area. He died in 2008 at age 69. Doc wrote a very popular musical called “It Was Mostly Fun” about growing up in Middleburg, where his father was a physician. His brother, Stuart, writes a newsletter in California and recently recalled Doc’s tomato patch. “He and I would fill a cooler with ice and beer, grab a bottle of bourbon and two saltshakers and head to his ripe tomatoes. We’d sit in the dirt and pick warm ripe tomatoes off the vine and sit there lying to one another eating those unrealtasting tomatoes and drinking for hours on end. It was a wonderful thing. I miss Doc.” Next time you attend the Dinner and Dive-In, a tomato sandwhich might be in order. And, by the way, the next community center’s “Doc Saffer Series” will be on Friday, August 21 for “Night at the Museum 3.” Be there.
writer and photographer for Middleburg Life. Sebastian graduated from the University of Mary Wash-
ington and is a realtor with Remax/Regency in Warrenton. The couple met playing polo at Great Meadow. A 2016 wedding is being planned.
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LOCAL TASTE… iernan Slater and Christopher Patusky are set to open a new wine shop and tasting room, The Local Taste, in Upperville the last week of August. Located in the historic stone cottage (circa 1800, Dulin’s Tavern) next to the Country Store, the shop will feature an eclectic selection of wines from around the world by the bottle, glass and taste, as curated by wine expert, Neal Wavra. The new shop will also feature their own wines grown and produced at Slater Run Vineyards and Winery located on their family’s farm not far from Upperville. Slater Run Vineyards and Winery produced its first vintage in the fall of 2014, and the Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Rosé and Cabernet Franc will be released to the public for the first time at The Local Taste in August.
www.middleburglife.net
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August 2015
DINNER & DIVE IN
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FROM THE HORSES MOUTH… The $500,000 West Virginia Breeders’ Classic will highlight a nine-race program worth a total of $1,080,000 in stakes purses when Charles Town Races hosts West Virginia Breeders’ Classics XXIX on Saturday, Oct. 10. As has been the case since West Virginia Breeders’ Classics founders Sam Huff and Carol Holden put on the inaugural event in 1987, the richest race on the card will be the West Virginia Breeders’ Classic for horses 3&up going 1 1/8 miles. Originally run for $100,000 in 1987, the $500,000 Breeders’ Classic now stands as the
country’s richest state bred contest. Last year’s running was captured by the venerable eightyear-old gelding Russell Road, who became the first horse to win this race three times. Other races on the card will include: the $150,000 West Virginia Cavada Breeders’ Classic, for fillies and mares ages 3&up going 7 furlongs. This will be the 16th year the Cavada will be run for a six-figure purse. The West Virginia Breeder’s Classic Distaff and West Virginia Onion Juice Breeders’ Classic will be contested for $70,000 with the Division of Tourism Breed-
ers’ Classic, Lottery Breeders’ Classic, Triple Crown Nutrition Breeders’ Classic and Vincent Moscarelli Memorial all carrying a purse of $60,000. The Triple Crown Nutrition Breeders’ Classic for two-year-old fillies and the $50,000 West Virginia Dash for Cash Breeders’ Classic will round out the card. Congressman Paul Tonko (D-NY) recently sent a letter to President Barack Obama, asking the White House to hold an official ceremony honoring American Pharoah and the team that guided him on his historic Triple Crown run
this year. “Welcoming athletes who have reached the pinnacle of their sport to the White House is a time-honored tradition,” he wrote. “As the first Triple Crown winner since 1978, honoring American Pharoah and the team that helped lead him to victory at a White House ceremony would continue this tradition and would celebrate the lasting cultural and economic impact horse racing has had across the country.” Stay tuned. n