Energy and Other Constraints on a 3I/Atlas Type Object, if it is of Artificial Origin

 Energy and Other Constraints on a 3I/Atlas Type Object, if it is of Artificial Origin

There have been speculations that the interstellar object 3I/Atlas might be of artificial origin, rather than being a natural object. This is obviously highly contentious, but I thought it would be interesting to see just how likely it would be for a civilization much like the Earth’s to send an object on an interstellar journey.

Even now, we know that Earth has already sent an interstellar object or two on their way out of the solar system. These are rather small probes, such as Voyager, Pioneer or New Horizons, that were sent to study the outer planets and as a result of those missions, are now proceeding out of the solar system. So, clearly it can be done, though it must be kept in mind that gravity assists (so called sling-shots) increased the velocity of these craft, such that they were significantly faster than they would have been with launch energy alone. That required some very specific orbital manoeuvres and planetary alignments – those conditions would not necessarily exist for other hypothetical journeys out of our solar system or out of any similar solar system.

Energy Constraints

So, I did a very high-level (i.e. approximate) analysis of the energy budget possible for a craft, using the energy various sources that we now have or could soon have, here on Earth. Those are:

Energy Available

Fuel                                              Mass Density (Kg/M3)     Energy Density MJ/Kg

Methalox (Methane/Oxy)             810                                         10

RP-1 with Oxidizer                     2074                                          12

Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX             641                                         17

U-235 (25% enriched)                 4000                                     3,900

Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)             4000                                     15,600

Here are the escape velocities from some points within the Solar System.

Energy Required to Escape the Solar System

Initial Point     Escape Velocity (km/sec)

Earth             42.1

Mars              34.1

Ceres             25.3

Jupiter          18.5

Saturn          13.6

Uranus           9.6

Neptune         7.7

Pluto             6.6

The basic idea is simple (below is the example of a 10 km radius "spacecraft", similar to the 3I/Atlas speculations):

• given a radius for the object, calculate the volume (assuming a sphere)

• make some of this the fuel mass and some of it the object mass, using representative densities for both.

• This example postulates a very high porosity in which a metholox (liquid methane and liquid oxygen mix) fuel supply could be contained.

Radius

- km 10

- m 10,000

Volume (assuming sphere)

- km3 4,189

- m3 4.19E+12

Mass (kg)

Fuel Methalox

- mass density (kg/m3) 810

- porosity 90%

- total fuel mass 3.05E+15

Non-Fuel (rock/metal)

- mass density (kg/m3) 3,000

- pct non-porosity 10%

- total non-fuel mass 1.26E+15

Total Fuel & Non-Fuel Mass

- porosity 90%

- Mass 4.31E+15Energy

Energy density (MJ/kg) 10.0

- Total (max avail, MJ) 3.05E+16

- porosity 90%

- Total, given porosity est. (MJ) 2.75E+16

For a very rough estimate of the velocity that could be obtained by burning this much fuel, given the mass of the object, a simple kinetic energy calculation is used. This assumes that all of the available energy could be "somehow" converted to the kinetic energy of the object:

Escape Velocity (km/sec)

- from solar system

Starting at Pluto

- km/sec 6.6

- m/sec 6,600

Escape Velocity – Kinetic Energy Required

- from solar system

Earth

- 6.65E+16 MJ

So, about 6.6 X 10E16 megajoules would be needed, but only about 2.8 X 10E16 megajoules would be available, even given simplistic and unrealistically optimistic estimates of the theoretically available energy. That gives an Energy Available/Required ratio of only about 0.41, not even half of what is needed to escape the solar system, even from the distance of Pluto.

Perhaps a significant payload could be launched out of a sun-like star’s solar system with a long series of gravity assists, though that would probably be extremely complicated and time consuming. Perhaps a long series of "stepping stones" might work, moving slowly to the outer parts of the system, always making use of local resources, such as dwarf planets, comets and asteroids.

However, if nuclear energy could be used, the situation would be dramatically different, due to the huge energy density of nuclear energy sources. Even from Earth distance, it could probably be done if enough enriched uranium was available and the object was assembled far from the Earth’s gravitational influence. I think the surface or near-surface of the object would have to be festooned with nuclear reactors, at least of the power of hundreds of nuclear submarines. At any rate, the energy would potentially be there, if it could be converted into kinetic energy (maybe by accelerating ions in a strong electric field).

The case is improved further, if the object was powered by fusion energy from deuterium-tritium reactors, should those actually be feasible. The main advantage would be availability of fuel. That would be even more true for deuterium- deuterium reactors. Again, the object’s surface and near-surface would probably have to contain hundreds of such reactors and devices for accelerating ions in strong electrical fields.

Detailed calculations for several fuels and several solar system distances from the sun are given in an appendix at the end of the blog.

Other Constraints

The next obvious question is "who would want to do this, given the vast expenses and the long time scales involved?". After all, even at fantastic velocities (e.g. 1000 km/sec) it would take millennia to get anywhere interesting. (e.g. at about 30 billion km per year, it would take about 1000 years to get to Alpha Centauri).

I think it would have to be a long-lived species, very possibly a non-organic one, that could make plans and then execute those plans on time scales like this. That assumes that members of a machine species could actually exist without breakdown for those kinds of time scales. On Earth, I don’t think we have kept any machine running for even centuries, let alone millennia.

So, my conclusion is that something like 3i/Atlas could conceivably be artificial, but it would indicate many technologies that we have still not achieved and planning horizons and motivations that we can’t even begin to comprehend.

That said, I suppose if something is possible, it might well be done, eventually.

Appendix

Below is a table with back-of-the-envelope calculations for various types of fuel and various distances from the sun-like central star.

Assuming Asteroid Radius=10 km
Starting from 1 AU (Earth Distance)
Initial Point	Earth	Earth	Earth	Earth	Earth
Initial Point escape Velocity	42.1	42.1	42.1	42.1	42.1
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	2.71E+18	6.93E+18	2.14E+18	1.34E+19	1.34E+19
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.010	0.012	0.017	3.96	15.84
Starting from 1.52 AU (Mars Distance)
Initial Point	Mars	Mars	Mars	Mars	Mars
Initial Point escape Velocity	34.1	34.1	34.1	34.1	34.1
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	1.78E+18	4.55E+18	1.40E+18	8.77E+18	8.77E+18
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.015	0.019	0.026	6.04	24.15
Starting from 2.77 AU (Ceres Distance)
Initial Point	Ceres	Ceres	Ceres	Ceres	Ceres
Initial Point escape Velocity	25.3	25.3	25.3	25.3	25.3
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	9.77E+17	2.50E+18	7.73E+17	4.83E+18	4.83E+18
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.028	0.034	0.05	10.97	43.87
Starting from 5.2 AU (Jupiter)
Initial Point	Jupiter	Jupiter	Jupiter	Jupiter	Jupiter
Initial Point escape Velocity	18.5	18.5	18.5	18.5	18.5
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	5.23E+17	1.34E+18	4.14E+17	2.58E+18	2.58E+18
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.05	0.06	0.09	20.51	82.05
Starting from 9.6 AU (Saturn)
Initial Point	Saturn	Saturn	Saturn	Saturn	Saturn
Initial Point escape Velocity	13.6	13.6	13.6	13.6	13.6
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	2.82E+17	7.23E+17	2.23E+17	1.39E+18	1.39E+18
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.10	0.12	0.16	37.95	151.82
Starting from 19.2 AU (Uranus)
Initial Point	Uranus	Uranus	Uranus	Uranus	Uranus
Initial Point escape Velocity	9.6	9.6	9.6	9.6	9.6
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	1.41E+17	3.60E+17	1.11E+17	6.95E+17	6.95E+17
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.20	0.24	0.33	76.17	304.69
Starting from 30.0 AU (Neptune)
Initial Point	Neptune	Neptune	Neptune	Neptune	Neptune
Initial Point escape Velocity	7.7	7.7	7.7	7.7	7.7
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	9.05E+16	2.32E+17	7.16E+16	4.47E+17	4.47E+17
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.30	0.37	0.51	118.40	473.60
Starting from 39.5 AU (Pluto)
Initial Point	Pluto	Pluto	Pluto	Pluto	Pluto
Initial Point escape Velocity	6.6	6.6	6.6	6.6	6.6
Fuel	Methalox	RP-1 with Oxidizer	Hydrogen, Liquid & LOX	U-235 (25% enriched)	Hydrogen, Fusion (DT)
Porosity	90%	90%	90%	90%	90%
Energy Available:	2.75E+16	8.47E+16	3.68E+16	5.29E+19	2.12E+20
Energy Required:	6.65E+16	1.70E+17	5.26E+16	3.28E+17	3.28E+17
Energy Index (Avail/Required)	0.41	0.50	0.70	161.16	644.63

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And here's a book promotion for a book that is premised on (guess what) an invasion of the solar system by an AI entity that plans to destroy humanity with an asteroid, among other methods.

The Magnetic Anomaly – A Science Fiction Novel

The novel version of The Magnetic Anomaly is now available onAmazon (ebook, print version to come soon, also audible version).

This novel began life as a short story, similarly by not exactly titled The Magnetic Anomaly – A Science Fiction Story (note “the novel” vs “story”). Some reviewers were interested to know where the short story would go, once it was turned into a novel.

To be honest, I didn’t know myself, until I started writing it. But often the process of writing takes on a life of its own. I think it turned out quite nicely, in my humble but obviously not disinterested opinion. Fortunately, my beta readers agreed with that assessment. I hope other readers agree as well.

Summary

Below is an excerpt from the short story, which is also the first chapter of the novel:

“A geophysical crew went into the Canadian north. There were some regrettable accidents among a few ex-military who had become geophysical contractors after their service in the forces. A young man and young woman went temporarily mad from the stress of seeing that. They imagined things, terrible things. But both are known to have vivid imaginations; we have childhood records to verify that. It was all very sad. That’s the official story.”

As the summary above indicates, the main characters, geophysicist Alex and geologist Mary, survived their ordeal in the northern exploration camp. However, there was much more involved, behind the scenes, than they could imagine at the time.

The novel version of the story expands greatly on this.

Alex and Mary get caught up in a vast conflict and exciting adventure, one of literally cosmic proportions. During this time, they encounter a variety of enigmatic persons, as well as other entities, all of whom are also engaged in this struggle. With some of them they end up allying; with others, they contend in deadly conflict. The struggle takes them around the world, and eventually to the far reaches of the solar system.

During this time their relationship continues to evolve and deepen. Circumstances demand that they grow in courage and confidence, though within the scope of (mostly) normal people, as has been the case for countless people throughout history.

The story also showcases some historical events, relating to different versions of what went on in Antarctica, shortly after World War 2. Several versions of these events, official and unofficial UFO lore are given. This becomes a springboard to much of the action. Some philosophical and scientifica ideas are also explored, though not in such a way as to get in the way of the action for long.

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Some Interesting (and Somewhat Spooky) Events, Concerning Clocks

Sept 2025: In the evening, my wife Helena and I were standing near the drip coffee maker in the kitchen. She wanted me to put coffee in the filter and water in the reservoir, as she wasn’t feeling all that well and thought she might spill something if she did it herself. However, she did stick around to make sure that I wouldn’t automatically turn the machine on after refilling it, as I often did, just by habit. The coffee was to be used in the morning, we were just setting it up that evening, for that purpose.

As a joke, I pretended I was going to turn it on after filling it up and pointed my finger at the on switch, as if I was about to turn it on. I said something like "now I stab at thee, on switch", riffing off the quote from Moby Dick ("From Hell’s heart I stab at thee").

At exactly that moment the clock on the wall suddenly fell down, with a loud thud as it hit the floor. The clock was in the same general direction as I was ‘stabbing’, as it was behind the coffee maker, a bit above and to the left. However, my finger was still a good foot away from the wall, as was my wife’s hand.

The timing was so precise that it was hard not to think that there was some significance to it. Helena wondered if it presaged a death. If nothing else, it presaged purchasing a new wall clock.

Some time in the 2010s: We had had a similar experience some dozen or more years earlier, while watching a TV show late one night. A comedy skit came on, featuring some black humour about a funeral. Just at that time, a different clock fell off a bookshelf near the TV. That clock had been owned by my mother, who had passed away a few months before.

Related to this was another occasion, when a book about War Brides fell off the bookshelf at another strategic time, again one that had significance my mom, who had been a war bride. Unfortunately by now my memory is a bit vague on the details around that one.

 

Perhaps all clocks are really time vultures in disguise. 

 

 

 

 

Race Track Diary, Entry Number One

Introduction

This blog and some following blogs are sections from an informal diary of “visits to the race-track” at a particular time and place, by a person who has followed the races with varying levels of participation over a long period. These relate primarily to some visits to the track and/or off-track betting venues in the 2025 period and onward. They contain observations about the activity, both specific and general. Although these remarks are personal, they also reflect general cultural and historical trends, as they have impacted horse-racing, wagering and culture in general.

The setting is Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (population of about one million). However, I imagine that the observations would apply to many places in the world, as they are a reflection of how changing trends in technology, globalization and culture in general have affected this ancient and honourable activity of horse-racing.

For now, I will use what I call “polished point-form” for the narrative.

1 – Fitzgerald’s Pub (Feb 20, 2025)

• This off-track betting site is located on a secondary road in the south-side of Edmonton, which is not generally a very busy road. There is a farmer’s market about a mile down this road, as well as a nice little driving range (golf) a little ways farther. In addition, there is a habitat for humanity recycling place nearby (handy for projects). These are all places that I visit quite regularly.

• Fitzy’s is sort of a neighbourhood bar, though it is in an industrial area of the city. I think that if one was to become a regular, one would probably get to know some people, have a few laughs, that sort of thing. The crowd generally seems pretty friendly.

• The place is basically a pub/restaurant, with the off-track horse-race betting area representing a smallish proportion of it (maybe about one-quarter). There was often some background music, as would be expected in a pub, but it didn’t seem to have constant blaring music (or at least it was not too loud).

• As might be expected, there were a number of large wall-size TV screens – some showed sports, with about 8 or 10 showing racetracks. Those tended to be some of the bigger tracks in the U.S., as well as Woodbine in Toronto.

• There were some dart boards, though nobody was playing at the time we visited. The wall featured pictures of hockey players (mostly Edmonton Oilers, for example Mike Comrie) and jerseys. That said, there was also a rather old Geordie Howe photo. He could have visited during his WHA or late NHL days (later 1970s to 1980), I suppose.

• Perhaps some of the Oiler players were regulars in the past? Or perhaps the owner got to know a few NHL players in some other way? Owning race horses can be a good in, as far as meeting athletes is concerned, or so I have heard. Golf courses are also good.

• My brother Craig pointed out a strange machine on one wall. It turned out to be one of those blood-alcohol testers. I wonder how well those readings would stand up in court.

• Since it was a Thursday, it was not very busy at the time of day that we visited. I had a lunch of fish and chips, which were pretty good. The beers tended to be the usual corporate beers, no craft beers as far as I cold tell. So, I had a Keith’s, which I find to be better than most corporate beers.

• The waitress was quite pleasant. I gave her a somewhat generous tip; she seemed surprised and appreciative of that. When we left, she was outside smoking a cigarette. She waved and said hi. A decent tip can have that effect.

• There were only a few scattered few horse players, mostly older in age, while we were there. They varied by ethnic background and were almost entirely male.

• There was a group of older boisterous patrons (male and female) in the tavern part of the pub. It must have been an after work crowd, by the sounds of it. But it was good; they were having fun without being annoying.

• As for the horses, I won a few bets, and came away from the day in the black, I think. To be honest, I wasn’t keeping super-diligent records. But I did have at least one fair-size win, which would have overcome any losses on other races.

• I hasten to add that I did no real handicapping; it wasn’t much more scientific than throwing darts. I did look to link a relatively sure thing with a longer shot that had showed decent speed in the past. Those are often overlooked by the casual bettor, so you can get a good price.

• It made me wonder if careful handicapping (with evidence-based statistical analysis) might once again be a workable program. In the 1990s, I developed a computerized statistical system which worked fairly well for about three years. Then it conked out (quit working), coincidental with the “dumb money” shifting over to VLTs and similar types of easy gambling.

• My hypothesis was that when the non-handicapping bettors left, the easy money left with them. At that point there was a much reduced information advantage to sophisticated handicapping. Thus, there were far fewer overlooked horses (i.e. their odds of winning were better than the odds that they went off at).

• So, is the something like that happening with multi-track horse-racing, but in reverse? In other words, is the multiplicity of race-track opportunities resulting in more cursory handicapping? Is the “dumb money” coming back? Also, is there some advantage to sharing bettor pools across many venues?

• Anyway, those were a few things to ponder, as we concluded our visit to Fitzgerald’s on a winter’s day.

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A Dark Horse

In “A Dark Horse”, a gambler’s desire to hit a big win seems to lead him to make a Faustian bargain with a supernatural evil.  Or is it all just a string of unnaturally good luck?

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Here’s an interesting review from Goodreads

(BTW, the writer has never met the reviewer and was not even aware of the review until very recently – You can look up the review on Goodreads, if you like)

A Dark Horse

Every gambler is bound to run out of luck eventually, right?

By far my favourite type of horror is psychological horror. I was quite pleased with how Mr. Olausen frightened his audience without spilling a single drop of blood or so much as hinting at anything gory. He knew exactly what hints to drop for us that made us deliciously dread the next scene simply by throwing out hints about who or what the dark horse might actually represent. This is the kind of stuff I love getting scared by, especially as Halloween approaches.

It would have been helpful to have more character development in this short story. While I certainly wouldn’t expect to see as much time spent on this as I would for a full-length novel, I did have trouble connecting to the main characters due to how little I knew about them and how much their personalities seemed to remain the same no matter what happened to them. If not for this issue, I would have felt comfortable choosing a much higher rating as the plot itself was well done.

I must admit to not knowing much about gambling at all, so I appreciated the brief explanations the narrator shared about how placing bets works and why some people have so much trouble walking away from a bet. While I will leave it up to experts on these topics to say how accurate everything was, I did enjoy learning more about the main character’s addiction and what he hoped to gain from betting on just one more game or race. It gave me a stronger sense of empathy for folks in his position.

A Dark Horse – A Gothic Tale was a deliciously chilling story for the Halloween season and beyond.

Horse-racing: Canadian Derby Day - Century Mile 5 (August 23, 2025)

A diary entry about a day at the races, 2025 style. 

• This is the fifth visit to Century Mile.

• My brother was now able to attend events away from his house again, so we decided to hit the track again.

• It was Derby Day in Edmonton Alberta, the Canadian Derby, the race with the highest purse of the season, in these parts. For this year, the purse was $200,000. It is a bit of a route-race, at one and a quarter miles.

• There were also some more high-stakes races on this day, fairly long distance races as well (over a mile): the Oaks, for $100,000, the Speed to Spare at $100,000, and the Distaff Handicap for $75,000. So, a big day at the local track, one with several races that can really test the stamina of the horses, and also make good use of the track’s one-mile oval.

• In earlier years, these purses were likely higher, when adjusted for inflation. But, crowds were also bigger, as were the handles (the amount of money bet on a given day at a given track). And, you only had one track to play, the one that you were actually at. So, all the money went to those horses. Now, the money is split among many tracks, though I don’t know the actual details of how that is done.

• The length and intensity of the local thoroughbred horse-racing meet is also very abbreviated compared to earlier years, only 2 or 3 days per week during the late spring, summer and early autumn months. Harness races take over in the later fall and winter, again with only two or three days per week.

• So, horse racing was a bigger draw during that time, as it was almost the only legal form of gambling in most areas. This is compared to earlier years, where horses ran most days of the week during a meet, with each of the several meets lasting 6 weeks or so. Unfortunately (for horse and horse-racing aficionados) the growth in other gambling venues and related opportunities has tended to make horse-racing fade into the background.

• But people still love an event, especially one that gives them an opportunity to dress up in fancy clothes, should that be their desire. Thus, the casino/racetrack was very crowded on this day. A fairly decent smattering of the people in the crowd were dressed up, in the fashion of the traditional derby event. That is to say, large showy hats, dresses and skirts (of varying length) for the women and somewhat dapper hats and vests for the men, along with the odd bolo tie. I thought it was kind of cool, especially on the distaff side, to use horse-racing parlance.

• As for myself, I did have on a white button-up shirt, with dark blue corduroy pants and black leather shoes. In modern times that might be thought of as a bit dressy, I don’t know. I mostly wanted the white button-up shirt for the heat (white reflects heat and the shirt was also short-sleeved). The pants and shoes just went along with that.

• We got to the track fairly early – at about 2:00 in the afternoon. The local race card wasn’t scheduled to start until 4:30, so there was plenty of time to kill.

• The first signs of how busy it would be was the presence of parking attendants to wave cars into the correct part of the parking lot. This was not normally the procedure; one could generally find parking quite easily. We half expected to be charged for parking, but somewhat surprisingly, this did not occur. I was reminded of a visit to Spruce Meadows in Calgary, which featured a similar platoon of parking attendants. Of course, that was for show-jumping, rather than racing.

• The next things to notice were signs announcing a $30 per person admission to the race-track grounds, which is extremely steep, compared to my experience at race-tracks in the past. But, there were plenty of people lined up to give them their money.

• As far as we were concerned, that hardly seemed like a good idea, so we gave it a pass. We headed for the casino, which is attached to the track (or perhaps one might say the track is attached to the casino). This area was plenty busy as well, with the betting section for the horse players mostly occupied. That being so, we took up some seats in a nearby section of the casino, thankfully not far from the horse-racing betting machines and racing cashier.

• This was a pretty good spot, with some nice seating, either sit down tables or bar-stool type high tables. So, settled down on to some chairs at a high table, bought a few beers and waited to see how things would develop.

• As noted above, the casino was already crowded, with a good proportion of the patrons dressed for the races. I don’t know if they were going back into the racetrack grounds later in the day, or had just decided to skip the $30 admission for the privilege of standing in the hot sun for hours. As far as I could ascertain from when we walked by the track, on the way to the casino, there wasn’t actually a lot of seating outside, in the racetrack grounds proper. That’s not like the old track, which had a capacious grand-stand and plenty of space along along the ground and near the rail, as well as a somewhat toney clubhouse. On big days it might also have corporate seating set up in the infield.

• With a long day ahead of us, we perused the off-track handicapping possibilities. My son and I settled on Del Mar, a track not far from San Diego California. Brother Craig paid some attention to that, as well as putting money down on races at some other tracks, such as the harness races at Woodbine and the thoroughbred races at the local track, once they eventually got going.

• Generally speaking, our betting went well. Scott and I suffered a few losses, but each of us picked up a healthy purse on a couple of quinellas, later in the card. That put us well over the top for the day. With reasonable money management, we kept things that way.

• I noted a young woman coming back from watching one of the races. She had that happy aura of someone who just won a race. Shortly thereafter, I was amused to see Scott score a decent win. It was interesting to see how winning some money pleased Scott, as he also came back beaming from winning his bet. That said, he wasn’t unduly demonstrative, avoiding the yelling and cursing at the horses, that some patrons enjoy while observing the race. He makes good money at work, so that wasn’t really the issue. But there is something very pleasing about winning a bet, especially one that you put some serious handicapping effort into.

• There were some folks who were getting quite excited while watching the races, oscillating between joy and disappointment, depending on what position their horse was at, any any given point in the race. I am reminded of a famous football coach, who discouraged too much unrestrained emotion from players who spiked the ball in the end-zone. He said “you should act like it’s not the first time you’ve been there.” I tend to go along with that, as does Craig and now, Scott too, apparently. I guess it is a family trait. Mind you, it would be inhuman not to show some emotion after winning (or losing). The trick is, to maintain balance and perspective.

• Both Scott and I are very analytical by nature, as well as highly educated in math and statistics (he has a PhD in physics, I am math/physics with much post-grad coursework in statistics). So, we do lean towards quite numbers-oriented handicapping. Craig does a little of this as well, but also relies on his instincts and hunches regarding underhanded odds manipulations, that may or may not go on behind the scenes.

• Scott’s mom (my wife) had also given him some cash to bet for her, so he was playing for the both of them. I think she did this more out of a desire to play some part in the events, even if from afar. But I think it pleased Scott to know that he was making some play-money for her.

• As I said, it was very crowded in the casino and got more crowded as the day went on. That necessitated a lot of quick moves to avoid bumping into people, as one walked back and forth between our table and the betting machines in the adjoining section of the casino. But, that all turned out ok. People, including myself, were on their best behaviour. It is interesting what a bit of dressing up will do, in that respect.

• It also meant heading into the racing section of the casino, to watch the race on one of the big screens, as our section’s TV screens were dominated by baseball and golf. While I was waiting to see how my horses did after one race, a nice middle-aged lady struck up a conversation. I guess I must have had some of that happy aura going on as well, since my picks had come in, though a jockey’s inquiry made the wait a little nerve-wracking.

• While watching another race, I noticed an unclaimed pencil on an empty table. Scott had neglected to take a pen or pencil, so I scooped it up for him. Then, a fellow came back, and looked at the table, glancing around with a quizzical expression. I guess I must have unknowingly filched his five-cent pencil. Well, so be it, I thought, as I walked back to our section of the casino. He should have taken better care of his valuables, especially five-cent pencils, which can be pretty damn handy at the track. Besides, he could pick up another one, at one of the Sport-Select terminals in the casino.

• After a while, the local races began. The second race was interesting. It wasn’t one of the feature races, but rather a cheap claiming race, but an unusually long one, a mile and five-eighths. The winner ran wire to wire (led all the way). At one point, it seemed as if it was tiring and would be beaten, but it dug in and called up some reserves of energy, finally winning going away, as they say. It was a very impressive performance.

• We didn’t actually stay for the Derby, but Craig did make a bet on the race, parlaying a bunch of other wins. Unusually for him, he bet to win, and his horse did come in first, paying $5.90 to win, which is a pretty good price, since it was the favorite.  He had bet a fair bit on the race, so he did ok, it put him over for the day, I think.

• So, we left early in the evening, having all finished the day in the black (though Craig didn’t know it yet). Scott even won some money for his mom, so all in all, a good day at the races

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  And, I suppose I should try to flog a book, so here's a short story with a horse-racing aspect to it:
  

  A Dark Horse

  In “A Dark Horse”, a gambler’s desire to hit a big win seems to lead him to make a Faustian bargain with a supernatural evil.  Or is it all just a string of unnaturally good luck?

  The story is just $0.99 U.S. (equivalent in other currencies) and about 8000 words. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited and is occasionally on free promotion.
  

  U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  U.K.: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  Spain:https://www.amazon.es/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MDMY2BR

  Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

  
  

  Here’s an interesting review from Goodreads

  (BTW, the writer has never met the reviewer and was not even aware of the review until very recently – You can look up the review on Goodreads, if you like)

  A Dark Horse

  Every gambler is bound to run out of luck eventually, right?
  
  By far my favourite type of horror is psychological horror. I was quite pleased with how Mr. Olausen frightened his audience without spilling a single drop of blood or so much as hinting at anything gory. He knew exactly what hints to drop for us that made us deliciously dread the next scene simply by throwing out hints about who or what the dark horse might actually represent. This is the kind of stuff I love getting scared by, especially as Halloween approaches.
  
  It would have been helpful to have more character development in this short story. While I certainly wouldn’t expect to see as much time spent on this as I would for a full-length novel, I did have trouble connecting to the main characters due to how little I knew about them and how much their personalities seemed to remain the same no matter what happened to them. If not for this issue, I would have felt comfortable choosing a much higher rating as the plot itself was well done.
  
  I must admit to not knowing much about gambling at all, so I appreciated the brief explanations the narrator shared about how placing bets works and why some people have so much trouble walking away from a bet. While I will leave it up to experts on these topics to say how accurate everything was, I did enjoy learning more about the main character’s addiction and what he hoped to gain from betting on just one more game or race. It gave me a stronger sense of empathy for folks in his position.
  
  A Dark Horse – A Gothic Tale was a deliciously chilling story for the Halloween season and beyond.

   

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