How P.E.I.'s iconic Gold Cup & Saucer race came to be, and how the coveted trophy got its name

At two minutes to midnight, the towering lights of the Charlottetown Driving Park glare down and illuminate the horses and track.

Thousands of faces watch in anticipation as the horses and drivers find their places behind the starter car.

Legendary race announcer Vance Cameron — who has labelled this "the greatest race in Canada" — is seconds away from calling the contest, where his booming voice can be heard across the capital.

And when the gated wings of the starter car fold, so begins the biggest stake in Prince Edward Island — for the most coveted trophy and purse in the province: the Gold Cup & Saucer.

"The excitement and the buzz, there's nothing like it," said Lee Drake, manager of racing and broadcast at Red Shores.

"It's not dubbed the greatest show in racing for nothing."

'Everyone would love to get their hands on the Gold Cup & Saucer'

2022 marks the 63rd running of the Gold Cup & Saucer. Horses, drivers, trainers, viewers have come from all over to be a part of the race.

This year, the purse is the biggest it's ever been at $100,000. Drake expects somewhere around 20,000 people to be in the stands. As is tradition, it'll likely be standing room only.

Come the end of the less than two-minute race, only a few will be able to get their hands on the big prize — and only for so long.

"Everyone would love to get their hands on the Gold Cup & Saucer [trophy], but the actual fact is you're going to get your hands on it ... probably for about 30 to 35 minutes, maybe an hour, and then it goes back in the showcase," Drake said.

"The history and the people that have touched that trophy over the years, it really is special."

It's a bit different than trophies in other sports. It's not paraded around in the streets like the NHL's Stanley Cup, or thrown around like the NFL's Lombardi Trophy. And that's part of the appeal.

Not only is the trophy hard to get, that limited time when it's in your hands is meaningful because you don't know if or when you'll hoist it again.

Where does the name come from?

Jerry McCabe calls the multi-levelled trophy "our Stanley Cup."

He's a local harness racing historian, and said that back in the early 1960s when the race was established, it got its name by combining major horse racing events: the Cheltenham Gold Cup in England and the Cup and Saucer stakes in Ontario.

In the early days when Charlottetown had a clay track, it was common for winners to finish just north of the two-minute mark, McCabe said. Now, after years of racing equipment upgrades, track developments and select horse breeding, winners can be around 1:50.

Ten to 15 seconds may not seem like much, but in the world of harness racing — on that track, in that moment — it may as well be a lifetime. 

Though the game has changed, the trophy has stayed pretty well the same. "Just more names on it over the years," McCabe said with a laugh.

The trophy itself features decades of winners on it on little plaques along the side. It also has an actual gold cup and saucer — although it's not real gold — as well as little horses and drivers.

"The winning owner does get a smaller replica, that has the cup and saucer on top of it, and they get that to keep," McCabe said.

"It's a pretty cherished item to have. There's only been 62 of them over the years and it's not an easy race to win or an easy trophy to get so they're prized."

The 63rd Gold Cup & Saucer race takes place Saturday, Aug. 20, at 11:58pm.