Another day at the races

When we got to Santa Anita Race Track in the late morning on recent Saturday and settled in at our seats, my father and step-mother (avid horse race followers) took out their racing forms and analyzed the day's offerings. This is common for when they go to the track; they're fairly serious about how they wager on the ponies. (They're not big time gamblers, but for the money they are putting down they try to be systematic about it.

My wife also looked at the racing form, glancing at the names of each horse in each race and the odds (the "morning line"). She prefers to bet on ones that have an interesting name and longer odds; if she's going to put down a couple bucks on a horse she wants to get a decent payout if it comes in. It's a system as well, but one based on different criteria.

(Me, I tend to wait until shortly before a specific race is getting close to starting, glance at the odds, and see if there's a moderate-odds one that gives me some sort of intuitive inkling. But that's not our topic here. You can read a tale of me and betting in this old post if you're really bored interested.)

As she surveyed the races she noticed in the 4th that one of the horses had in its name the name of one of her beloved relatives, and as such she decided she had to bet on that equine when the time came.

So when the 3rd race had come and gone and she was getting ready to make her bet for the 4th she intended to put down bets for all three positions (Win, Place, and Show) for the horse she'd picked earlier (#4, seen at left), but as that was a really long longshot she also wanted to place one other Place bet on another horse (#2).

However, when she got to the mutuel (the betting window) she got the numbers of the two horse mixed up and ended up placing the three bets on the other horse and the single bet on the horse she meant to do. She didn't realize exactly until she'd walked away from the window, and by that point she was too annoyed to want to bother. Back at our seats she sat with a bit of a foul look on her face.

Then the 4th race was run.

The horse for which she'd inadvertently bet (#2) ended up crossing the finish line first (see below). The horse she had intended to be the target of those bets (#4)... didn't cross the finish line at all.

With the odds her winning horse had, the payout for her investment turned a profit of nearly $30. Her mood turned around at that point.

Are there ever really accidents? I wouldn't bet on it.

~

Piqued your interest about Santa Anita? Photos from a visit from a few years ago can be seen in this post.