Has the anti-drinking crowd succeeded in crushing Foxfield? On Sunday, the quiet fields, line-less port-a-johns, and absence of vehicular traffic seemed to tell a story. Indeed, according to Foxfield’s boss, approximately 3,000-4,000 people attended, significantly fewer than the typical crowd of 5,000-6,000 at past fall “family day” versions of the semi-annual steeplechase event.

“We probably had less people then we normally do because there were so many activities going on this weekend– Dave Matthews Band and George Clinton, among others,” says Foxfield Racing Association President Benjamin J. Dick.

The crowd of mostly parents and children who did show up were not shortchanged. More than 80 horses took part in the steeplechase races over the course of the day.

“We had to create a seventh race to accommodate all of them,” Dick says.

In recent years, Foxfield has come under fire for allowing underage alcohol consumption, although the primary criticism has been levied at the spring running of the races that has served as a de facto “Easters” party since UVA cancelled that celebrated spring event nearly 25 years ago.

Other bummers included cancellation (more)

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UVA has dumped its early decision admission program in the wake of similar decisions by Harvard and Princeton universities, the school announced yesterday. The program, which accounts for 30 percent of accepted students, was eliminated in an attempt to provide greater accessibility to low-income students.

“The opportunity of early decision,” said UVA President John T. Casteen III Monday, “has come somehow to be the property of our most advantaged applicants (more)

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A national realtors’ report that home prices dropped for the first time in 10 years in August doesn’t have dire implications here yet– although prices of properties in the $500,000 range and above could be lower than a year ago, according to local real estate guru Dave Phillips.

The National Association of Realtors reported yesterday that home prices were down 1.7 percent in August from a year ago. In Massachusetts it’s even worse– prices have tanked 6.1 percent. Not to worry here?

“I’m just shaking my head,” says Phillips, CEO at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Association of Realtors. “They’re making it sound like markets have gone to hell in a handbasket.”

The Charlottesville market is much more insulated because of UVA, says Phillips, but it has changed dramatically in the past year, with more than twice the inventory. And houses are remaining for sale longer. That said, “This is likely to be the second best year for sales,” coming in right behind last year’s record, says Phillips.

In mid-May, in one sign of local softening, prices fell on spec houses in this area. However, Phillips notes that houses priced under $300,000 are still appreciating. It’s the bigger-ticket properties that are suffering– relatively.

“A house that sold for $800,000 a year ago may sell for $700,000 now,” says Phillips.

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There’s more bad news for Senator George Allen, who’s spent the last several weeks of his campaign first doing damage control for his “Macaca” incident and then adjusting to news that he’s from a Jewish family. Today, on the webzine Salon, three of Allen’s former UVA football teammates say the Senator displayed racist attitudes– and took at least one racist action– when he played for the Cavaliers in the early 1970s.

“Allen said he came to Virginia because he wanted to play football in a place where ‘blacks knew their place,’” Dr. Ken Shelton told Salon.com. According the the article, Shelton, a white radiologist now living in North Carolina, played tight end for the UVA football team when Allen was quarterback, and recalls that Allen “used the N-word on a regular basis back then.”

The other two teammates, who spoke to Salon on condition of anonymity, also recalled Allen’s use of the “N-word,” but Shelton’s memories are the most detailed. He claims Allen gave him the nickname “Wizard” because he shares a last name with 1960s KKK Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton.

The most disturbing of Ken Shelton’s recollections, however, is of a hunting trip he took with Allen and a third white teammate. Shelton tells Salon that after the trio had killed a deer, Allen asked where black residents lived. He then stuffed the severed head of the doe into their mailbox.

According to the article, in the week before publication, Salon reporters interviewed 19 former UVA teammates and college friends of Allen. In addition to Shelton and the two who said Allen used the word “nigger,” two others claimed they were bothered by his display of the Confederate flag. Seven said they didn’t know Allen well but didn’t recall him making racist comments. Seven said they were close friends and had never heard or seen an indication that Allen was racist.

Allen’s campaign did not return calls from either Salon or the Hook. However, in a press conference reported by the Associated Press, Allen called Shelton’s assertions “ludicrously false” and claimed he never used racial slurs.

A campaign spokesperson for Jim Webb, Allen’s opponent for the Virginia Senate seat he’s held since 2000, declined to comment directly on allegations in the Salon article. “Jim is in Hampton Roads talking to constituents about economic fairness,” says Kristian Denny Todd. “His message is a positive one, and has the right kind of values that line up with most Virginians’ values.”

Allen’s attitudes made headlines in late August when he referred to a UVA student and Webb campaigner as “Macaca,” and incident that made headlines across the country. S.R. Siddarth, a student of Indian descent, was following Allen on the campaign trail.

Last week, Allen again made headlines when he finally acknowledged that his mother was raised Jewish in Tunisia during WWII, something she never told him, he said, until this past summer.

Daily Progress reporter Bob Gibson first reported on Allen’s Jewish roots three years ago, but at Allen’s behest the paper ran a correction.

Shelton’s controversial recollections coming on the heels of the two previous issues is “dreadful timing for George Allen,” says Joshua Scott, director of programs for UVA’s Center for Politics. If Allen hopes to defeat Webb in November, the questions about his past and his racial views need to be quelled.

“The reality is we’re still 40 days out from the election, so there’s time for Allen to recover from this, espeically if the allegations are false,” says Scott. “But if this is still a story we’re talking about two weeks from now, Allen’s in a lot of trouble.”

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Bob Gibson, the dean of political reporting at the Daily Progress, reveals today in his Sunday column another bizzare Jewish roots denial from Senator George Allen– this one from way back in 2003.

As Americans have been learning over the past week, unlike some public figures such as Madeleine Albright, who revel in revelations about their ancestry, Allen initially took a stance conveying unease with discussion of his family’s Jewish heritage, including his now-famous September 18 bristling at a television reporter who had the temerity to raise the issue.

After Gibson alluded to Allen’s Jewish roots in a warm-and-fuzzy October 2003 column, the Senator’s then-press secretary demanded and won this correction in the Progress: “Etty Allen, the mother of Sen. George Allen, was raised a Christian, according to the senator’s staff. Her religious background was mischaracterized in a Sunday column.”

Does Allen have his own special timetable for releasing information or misinformation? The Washington Post revealed recently that Allen’s mom kept her secret until late August of this year. (Gibson also points out today that Allen had once asked the Progress to avoid using Allen’s middle initial “F,” which stands for Felix, in its reports. Felix was the first name of Allen’s Jewish grandfather.)

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UVA’s third-string quarterback is on his way to a second start, the coach confirmed tonight, and some are talking about an entire season.

Despite the lopsided loss to Georgia Tech yesterday, Jameel Sewell, a Richmond-area redshirt freshman will start another game as UVA’s starting QB when the Cavalier’s play Duke September 30. “In staff discussions today, we all felt he handled himself positively,” head coach Al Groh said tonight in a conference call. “All the up-the-field throws– he threw each one of them well last night.”

Groh’s comments bolster widespread pundit speculation that the QB slot may, after starts by Christian Olsen and Kevin McCabe, belong to Sewell for the rest of the season, even though Groh himself declines to speculate past the next game. “All we can think about is the one we’re playing next week.”

After several dropped passes and allegedly weak line protection in Thursday night’s 24-7 loss, Groh suggested that Sewell’s left arm deserved a few more points. “He could have gotten some more help,” Groh said.

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