Experience #21- Attend a Horse Race

Nothing says Merry Christmas Eve like reading about a horse race, eh? Well, this is an experience that I thought of doing last Spring, but did not act on quickly enough so I had to wait all year long for the season to start up again. It was back then that I realized that there is a horse track here in Tampa. Obviously the whole point of the track is for people to lose money betting on the races, but no one makes you place bets and admission is totally free, so me and my Dad had to go and check things out. Brian and my mom were to come as well, but they got sick. Sorry guys, but the horse race express must keep on chugging.

Here is Tampa Bay Downs. I forgot to take my own photo of the outside, so here is a stock photo from the Internet. Looks like it was taken a while ago, but you get the idea...

They also had poker in here somewhere. I never saw it.

And what kind of people might you see at the track? People like this...


Yup, it was a wild and rowdy crowd! There were old guys, snowbird couples, Moms with strollers, tweens, Grandparents with their grandkids- quite the mix! Which helped me not feel like a total fish out of water. I mean, they needed a girl in a BYU shirt to show up that day, just to complete the variety.

Inside the track complex, there is a snack bar, gift shop, and TVs everywhere! And each one is showing something different that everyone is betting on. Whether it was the horse race going on outside, jai alai from Miami or Greyhound racing from California- there is no shortage of ways to waste your money at this place! I believe some of these guys had been there since 1994.

This was the giant scoreboard thing at the track. If you ask me, this thing is uber-complicated. We had a very hard time trying to decipher what any of this meant. We never placed any bets, but I don't think we could have if we wanted to without having to take some sort of night class at the local college.



There were seriously so many ways to bet- win, place, show, trifecta, superfecta, box 5, quinella, daily double, pick 6- I could go on forever. Dad and I decided that for each race we would just personally choose the winner and the only goal was for our horse to beat the other's horse.

Here is the program for the day, and knowing how to read this thing is like being a Navajo codetalker during WWII- there are only handful of people in the world that can actually do it.


The specs on each horse include EVERYTHING- the owner, the trainer, where he was bred, the names of his parents, how much he was bought for, the top 3 results of the horse's last races, the horse's social security number, his hobbies, what he's looking for in a special lady horse, a short description of how the horse did in the last races, what kind of surface he ran on, when his last workout was, what kind of drugs he is on, his top speed, the jockey's name and record- information overload! Much easier to just say, "Uhhh, Rum Customer, yeah, that looks like a good horse" and make your bet that way. That day there were ten races, each one starting about 20 minutes after the other. As soon as the "time to post" (your bets) had expired, the horses would begin to go out on the track to make their way to the gate. The "post parade" as it is called- and YES, they really do play that race fanfare trumpet noise during this time. It was sweet.





Some sweet video of the finish of a race:




Then after each race, the winning horse and jockey comes to the winner's circle to have his picture taken.



Then the owners get in on the action. Loved the hat on that lady in the middle.



The jockeys were mostly hispanic, and of course, tiny. The program says they have to be under 120 pounds. And they actually get weighed after winning a race, just to make sure there was no funny business going on. I am not sure if you can see it or not, but the jockey is getting off a scale under this little pavilion.



The different silks they wear are awesome.



We liked the green clover the best.



We even went down to the "paddock" to see the horses up close.



Anyway, Dad kicked my fanny in picking the winners. I don't think I correctly picked the winner for any race. He correctly picked 2 winners and if they didn't win they placed or showed. Not bad for a rookie! BUT, by far and away, the absolute BEST part of the whole experience was the Horse Names. There was nothing funnier than going through the program and reading to each other the ridiculous names for horses that we found. We instantly knew that this subject could feed my blog for a few days.

And it will! Stay tuned :)