Countdown to the Cup: Course hits 25 years of state ownerhip

This week, we’re previewing one of spring’s most popular traditions, The Carolina Cup, set for Saturday in Camden.

Every year, nearly 70,000 people head to Camden’s Springdale Race Course for tailgating, socializing, people-watching and — oh, horse racing.

But one of South Carolina’s premier steeplechase events might not have had a home if not for Marion duPont Scott.

The lifelong horse enthusiast — a member of one of Camden’s most prominent families and an heir to the DuPont chemical company — willed the Cup’s 640-acre home to the state when she died 25 years ago. She stipulated that it be used for equine activities.

The course itself was created in 1930; Scott purchased it in 1954.

Today, the site includes 250 stalls, several race tracks and the National Steeplechase Museum.

“When (the course) was built, it was laid out where the entire course could be viewed from the ground by anybody,” said Hope Cooper, executive director of the museum and a Carolina Cup attendee for 50 years.

State ownership “is the most stable ownership you could possibly dream of for this piece of property,” said John Cushman, vice chairman of the Carolina Cup Racing Association. “If it were given to family, it would ultimately get sold and developed.”

The annual interest earned from a $1 million endowment that Scott donated in 1983 helps the association manage the course.

— Marjorie Riddle, mriddle@thestate.com