Racing 101

Saturday, Andi, Jacob, a friend who will remain nameless and I went to the horse races. I've only ever been to the races once before and that was about 15 years ago. So I didn't remember much about it and knew practically nothing. I thought about watching the movie, Dreamer, for some inspiration, but in the end, I decided to study up on racing a bit.

I went to the website for the racetrack and learned HOW to bet. I had the lingo down pat and practiced saying it in the car on the way over to the track. This racetrack has simulcast racing, so we had to make sure to put it all in order - How To Bet
State the NAME of the Track (Ellis Park, Churchill Downs, Oaklawn, etc.)
State the RACE NUMBER.
State the AMOUNT of the bet.
State the TYPE of bet (Win, Place, Show, etc.).
State the NUMBER of the Horse.
Example: "Ellis Park, 2nd race, $7 to Win on No. 6" (This is just an example as I was a minimum bet kind of gal.)

I printed this out, along with the different types of bets so that we study it a bit and wouldn't look like complete idiots. Nameless Friend had done even more research than I and as we got into the car, she whipped out the day's races and we began having a mini tutorial on the basics of racing.

After much discussion on whether to go with our free general admission seating or the more deluxe sky box seating with the minimum food order, we decided to go the cheap route. We found a wonderful spot right along the top of the seating area where there was a constant breeze and the weather was perfect.

We broke out the racing program and studied it hard after finding an isolated table so that those around us wouldn't think we were idiots. I'm sure we looked quite inconspicuous as we tried to figure it all out before giving up and asking the seasoned better at the end of our table exactly what we were looking at.

After listening closely to what he had to say, when it came time to make my decisions, I looked at the horse's record, their age, how many times they had won this year, the jockey's records, the breeder's records, where they came from, what the jockey weighed and what type of track they ran on best, turf or grass.

After running all that through my head and thinking about it carefully, I then made my decision based on how cute the name of the horse was or if they had a fun color of clothes on the jockey. I'm scientific that way. Fortunately, this method of picking horses turned out quite well for me. I lost my money in the first race but then for the rest of the day, I won something in every race. It was so much fun.

Andi won $2.10 cents on the first race and she thought she was on a roll. Turned out - she was wrong and by the end of the 5th race, she and Jacob were using pretend money. Not because they had lost a lot - we only bet a little, but because they just weren't winning anything and decided to save their money. They still had a blast.

Here was my big excitement of the day: 5th race - Ellis Park - July 21, 2007 I picked horse #6 to win, #1 to place (2nd) and #8 to show (3rd). If by some miracle, you pick these in order and they win in order and you bet them to win in that order, it's called a Trifecta. Here is what the website said the Trifecta paid in that race $2 Trifecta, 6-1-8 $332.00. Yep, that is $332.00! Oh, if I had only bet on the Trifecta, but I didn't, so I won about 25 bucks - which was still cool.

It seemed as if I couldn't lose and I was having so much fun but I sensed that the others losers were getting antsy, so on the 10th race I bet on a long shot to place: 30 - 1 odds, but he had a fun name, Funky Pirate, and besides it was the jockey's birthday! Wouldn't you know it ~~ Good ol' Funky Pirate came in 2nd - which meant that I won anyway since it placed above what I had bet it to do!

I just mumbled that I would cash out my ticket and be right back so we could go. I probably won't go back again because why mess with my winning streak? As it is, I didn't lose any money and I will always remember the day that the complete idiot did OK at the track.... and I won't let the others forget about it either.