Whoa, Nellie!

[maeve66]

mudpriestess is right! I totally forgot one of the most enjoyable things I did after coming out here, which was going to Arlington Race Track with her.

I love horse racing. I have loved it since I was 8 and my dad took us to see Secretariat run, twice, in 1974, in Arlington, and also in Saratoga, New York. Since I was in my early 20s, I have also loved BETTING on horse races. I have a system, for lack of a better word: I go by whether the horse's name gives me some synchronicitous jolt. Any kind of a thematic coincidence works. On Saturday when mudpriestess and I went, the theme I was thinking of was "anything vaguely militaristic", because I'd been on an hour-long call with M. the night before. He called at 3:56 AM and I went out to the back yard and talked until 5 AM. I promised to put some money on a few horses for him. His own system would be more based on Charles Bukowski's, I think.

Anyway, my system goes: relevance of name; then a secondary level of names, given in the horse's ancestry; then if I recognize the jockey, or if the jockey is an apprentice (because they tend to win a lot, being even tinier and lighter and hot shit), or if the jockey is a woman, simply out of gender solidarity; then the actual odds on the horse; then if the horse is grey, because I think greys are gorgeous... and one guy who trained horses told M. and I that we should look for dappling in the hide, because that indicates good condition. If I can, I prefer to make all my bets first (since all they rely on is the names, and I can see that beforehand) and then relax and enjoy the races.

So. mudpriestess had never gone to the races before, and it was extraordinarily fun, once we figured out all our bets. I think it is fair to say that she adopted my highly scientific betting system. And she won BIG -- as "big" is defined in my terms, which means better than breaking even. Seriously, though, $70 total. Given that we made the minimum bets for the most part -- $2 per wager -- that's damn good.

Horses that I won on included (actually, these were bets made for M.): "Off Duty" (EXCELLENT name, given the circumstances) and "Spy Park", which is also relevant.* Hm. And then there were two favorites that came in, at the end, for both mudpriestess and I. God. Who were those two? "Rocket Rodd" or something like that. And ... what? What was the other one in that late race, mudpriestess?

The whole afternoon was fun. The beer was good. We paid for reserved seats so we'd be out of the sun, and that was worth it. I'd do it again in a hot second. And I want to go to Golden Gate Fields when the season starts there, again.

*Okay, full disclosure: I also lost on "Sergeant Carter", and if we hadn't missed the first two races, I would have bet and lost on "Sgt. Master Commander". And I lost on "Fort Prado", too. So the military theme didn't, perhaps, procure the BEST results. But still, I enjoyed those two wins.

Comments

[mcpino.livejournal.com]

Do they still run at Bay Meadows out there? I enjoyed going there a few times when I lived in NoCal.

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

My uncle keeps telling me that Bay Meadows is closing down, due to be sold for condominiums. It still has a website, though there is no racing right now. I've been there about once.

[mudpriestess.livejournal.com]

I love that you can just bang out these little good personal essays (which is really what they are...) on suggested topics. The other horse we bet on in the last race was "That I Am."

What percentage of Thoroughbreds are bred as race horses, and what percentage of those turn out to be raceworthy? Idly wondering. I don't really want numbers, just a general feel...

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

No clue. What else are Thoroughbreds for, except racing, though? I mean, why would one want one, except for, um, hunting to hounds, steeplechasing, or racing? And even those are, I think, subdivisions among thoroughbreds -- I think the spindliest legs are the straight racers, rather than the steeplechasers or hunters.

Read that Jane Smiley book, Horse Heaven! It's a really good saga. Kind of (I can't believe I'm saying this) Black Beauty for grown ups. Except that book grated on me, and Smiley's doesn't.

[brooklyn-jak.livejournal.com]

Ahh, memories. I used to go with my family as a kid to Arlington. My mom used to pick horses based on what the jockeys were wearing. It seemed to work as well as any other method. We always had a blast. We went to Belmont this year for Father's Day and it was great. Chris had never been before and I think he got the bug. He wants to go again soon.

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

It's addictive, and I mean that in good way. If there is a good way.

[oblomova.livejournal.com]

I've never been to the races -- I'm worried I'd see a horse break its leg and have to be put down and it would traumatize me. I'm still sad about Eight Belles (and talk about a beautiful gray!)

On a lighter note, please tell me that "Gomer Pyle" is the horse that beat "Sergeant Carter." Because that would be so awesome!

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

I wish. I was trying to look up the results, and cannot get the stupid equibase Adobe acrobat to work, despite downloading, like, a million updates. Maybe it only works with PCs? I could see the results on my dad's Dell. Sigh.

[gavinworld.livejournal.com]

I love horses (though I haven't been riding in years) and horse racing. When I was about 10, my dad took me to Arlington Park on open house day. We got to see what it was like "backstage" at the track, which was really cool. The last track I visited was in Salem, NH several years back, where I won enough to buy an ice cream sundae.

If you haven't seen the film Seabiscuit already, you should, not least because Tobey Maguire is so cute.