Race Track Diary, Entry Number Nine

Century Mile Racetrack (August 30, 2025)

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 plus). 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.

Publisher’s note: A similar account was given earlier in the year. This is a slightly rewritten version, since I wanted to slip it into the proper calendar order in the blog.

9 – Century Mile 6 (August 30, 2025)

This diary entry describes the sixth visit to Century Mile, ninth visit to the horse-races in one fashion or another (i.e. off-track betting sites and/or the actual ‘track’).
Our initial plan was to go to an off-track betting site in Sherwood Park, a bedroom community close to Edmonton. Craig had heard of this place, which supposedly opened early in the year.
I checked into this on the internet. Websites describing the location of off-track betting venues were metaphorically all over the map, some noting the Sherwood Park sites, others not listing it at all.
It turned out that there was a lot of inconsistency about off-track betting locations in the province, in general, on the various websites. Some locations were listed on a particular website, while that location was absent from other websites. I suppose that was due to inconsistent updating of website, though it also indicates flux in the opening and closing of such venues.
A call to the Sherwood Park locationin question (a restaurant/pub), determined that the off-track betting was closed ("no longer available" is how the staff member phrased it). The takeaway lesson is: phone ahead before going on a long drive. I imagine this is good advice for other provinces and states in North America.
So, we headed for an alternative off-track racing venue, which ironically enough, is the actually the horse-racing section of the casino at the Century Mile racetrack.
It was a lot less busy than it had been on Derby Day (the previous weekend visit), though the horseracing section was fairly well occupied, so well occupiied in fact, that we had to take seats at some benches right at the front of the room, only a few feet from the big TV screens. That had the advantage of making it easy to read the data on the screens, but had the disadvantage of having one feeling rather cramped, craning to view the screens on the higher level.
We were right near the cashier’s window, so the woman there teased us playfully, saying that we must have been misbehaving, as we were being forced to sit at the front of the class. Not surprisingly, she turned out to be a (probably retired) school teacher, working a side gig. She seemed to enjoy chatting and bantering with the horse crowd, the way a retired teacher might, which was cool.
There’s not a whole lot to report about the day. I was shut out on one race that I was about to bet, that I would have won. (I had the numbers written on the program, that’s proof, ha ha!).
But I hit my mark on the next race, betting an exactor that paid enough to cover the remaining bets for the rest of the day, with some to spare.
So, my unlikely streak (or near-streak) continued, now with six winning days out of nine, along with two break-even days. I should note that this streak had me thinking of ways to simulate the phenomenon on the computer, to test how likely long streaks were, on the assumption of random chance. I plan to give some results of that project later on, in the diary.
I don’t think Craig did as well, but he was somewhat preoccupied with some family issues, so that got in the way of his handicapping and/or skeptical yet often valid intuitions about the less legitimate side of the sport. Nonetheless, I think it did him some good to get out of the day-to-day routine of his household and mix it up with the horses.
So, a fairly quiet outing, but worthwhile anyway.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since I am running a book publishing blog, here is a plug for a horse-racing oriented short story that I wrote.

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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here is a science fiction story that I wrote. It’s not about horses, but people seem to have found it interesting, going by reviews and/or ratings on Amazon (note that there actually is a novel version now):

The Magnetic Anomaly: A Science Fiction Story

“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.”

You can purchase it for all of 99 cents. Alternatively, keep your eyes open for a free promotions, which occur periodically. Or, get it with Kindle Unlimited.

Amazon:

U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0176H22B4

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0176H22B4

Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0176H22B4

France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0176H22B4

Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0176H22B4

Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0176H22B4

Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0176H22B4

Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0176H22B4

Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B0176H22B4

Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0176H22B4

Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0176H22B4