Since he was 11 years old, the 40-something Camden native has come every year to the steeplechase event that organizers say draws the largest crowd of any in the country.

Saturday marked the 72nd running of the Cup. The swarm of nearly 80,000 people who consume copious amounts of food and drink in a multi-acre tailgate frenzy at Springdale Race Course every year means a little spring green to Miller.

"I want the In God We Trusts," he told a group of friends who'd traveled from Charleston to party all afternoon.

That was after Miller hauled two coolers full of ice and drinks for them several hundred yards on his hand truck. He usually charges $20 per trip from the general parking lot to the infield, he said, but he accepted $17 and two cold beers for that jaunt. The most he's ever made at the Cup is $450, he said.

For the day, Miller donned a yellow-and-white umbrella hat he said he bought for 75 cents at a yard sale on his way to the race course. While others were more fashionable, trotting out their best spring outfits, Miller said he was glad for the little bit of shade. The crowd made the field hot and dusty by midafternoon.

All the trucks and SUVs that brought in thousands of tents, tables and coolers created a beige haze that lingered in the air over the constant pedestrian movement from paddock to infield. Spectators' shoes turned a brownish shade of their original color, and those who opted for bare feet or flip-flops looked like beach bums from the shins down. No one seemed to mind, though, because it wasn't raining.

"We've had some cooler years, but this is excellent," said William Rutherford of Columbia, adding that most of all he enjoyed socializing and networking at the Cup. It was his fifth year, he said.

The Rutherford group, some 20 friends and family members gathered around tables full of yellow tulips and trays bearing Southern cooking, was among nearly 1,700 tailgate parties in the infield.

Everywhere people laughed, talked and sipped drinks. The soundtrack changed from Jimmy Buffett to Jane's Addiction to Outkast in twenty paces. The horizon was a turbulent sea of low-cut pastel dresses, straw hats, plaid pants and seersuckers.

"It looks like an Easter egg exploded here," said Cub Berrian, scanning the crowd as he hurried down a pathway with his friend Tony Marra of Sumter.

It was the first Cup in five years for Berrian and the first ever for Marra.

"I was told there would be alcohol here," Marra said straight-faced. Each of the men wielded a tall bloody Mary with a foot-long celery stalk swaying like a flag off the rim. A couple of hours later, Marra emceed an impromptu limbo line at another tailgate party.

It was hard to find anyone who'd come to watch the horses race.

"Everyone says you'll never see a horse at the Cup," said Margaret Roberts, a University of South Carolina student. "But we're determined to see one."

Sure enough, although the race announcer's British accent was muffled over the party's roar, there was a horse race nearly every half-hour.

People lined the white rails during each of seven races throughout the day for a quick glimpse of jockeys on thoroughbreds.

Betting on horses is illegal in South Carolina, but that doesn't mean there were no friendly bets. Eighteen-year-old Gavin Ward of Columbia won $4 from his friend Scott Gillespie. They said they bet each other based on which horse names they liked.

All that partying leaves quite a mess behind, said Wendy Kingsley, marketing director with the Carolina Cup Racing Association. The morning after is a sea of lawn chairs and litter, she said, and last year a couch and a few people were still left.

About 200 law enforcement officers from various state agencies kept order, Kershaw County Sheriff Steve McCaskill said. A temporary jail was constructed in the parking lot to hold arrested people, and McCaskill said lots of people go to jail every year at the Cup.

"It's for underage drinking, being drunk, fighting -- kid's stuff," he said.

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