Race Track Diary, Entry Number
Twenty-Two
22 – Billy Budd’s (Feb 6, 2026)
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.
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22 – Billy Budd’s (Feb 6, 2026)
I entered upon this trip to the off-track horseracing joint, with a feeling of trepidation. I had come out ahead for 3 straight visits, so I felt it must be time for a reckoning. Things had been too good.
This visit was on a Friday, since I had other duties to perform on Saturday. However, there was a fairly good crowd at Budd’s, at least for the first part of the afternoon. I does seem like the lunch special draws people in.
The first order of business was the Santa Anita races. I have had rather good luck with this track. Would my luck change? Read on to see:
We were a bit too late to put down any bets on Race 1 at Santa Anita. It was a Maiden Claiming race, with almost all the horses making their first run. As it turned out, the race was taken by the horse that my system would have picked, though it was the only horse that actually had a race in the past performance form. The rest only had workouts. So, though my horse won, I might well have skipped the race, due to the lack of information.
Race 2 had a couple of evenly matched horses on top, in my figuring. Neither went off at particularly good odds, so I really should have skipped the race. But I went ahead anyway, choosing the number 4 horse, which had the higher odds. It got into a real speed duel with the 5 horse, which led for most of the way, but the 5 overtook it in the stretch. All the horses had low payouts, nothing over $3 on a $2 bet. That was hardly suprising, as it was a short field of only five horses.
Race 3 was similar. The top horse under my figures went off at just under even money, but I took a flier on it anyway. It came in third, show money amounting to a cool dime. Once again, it was a short field of only five horses.
Race 4 continued the trend. My pick (#6) went off a decent odds, and led for most of the race. But it faded a bit at the end, being beaten by half a length by the #2 horse. That was unfortunate, as my horse paid nearly even money to place, so the win ticket would have been nice. But it was not to be.
Race 5 went off in the same fashion as well. The #3 horse had nice numbers and went off at a decent price. I decided to bet conservatively and had a place ticket on it. It led most of the way, but faded in the stretch to come in third. This was getting annoying.
By Race 6 I was getting desperate to pick up some sort of victory, so I actually bet show on the race. This was something of a rarity, but I thought I might as well take the full treatment, as I was sure that the racing gods were out to teach me some humility. My horse had long odds and led much of the way, but died (not faded, died) in the stretch. The horse that won (#4) ran quite a nice race, pulling away in the stretch to win by a good 3 seconds. So, at least the race was interesting. The race had a fairly good purse (35K) and claiming price (50K), so there was some quality there.
Race 7 spared my feelings, ensuring that I never had a chance. My pick had really good numbers by my system andd went off at excellent odds. Sometimes the system picks such a dark horse to come in, but not this time. It finished so far back that it didn’t even finish in the dust, as there was time for the dust to settle.
By Race 8 I was feeling pretty gloomy. My preferred horse had numbers that outclassed the rest of the field and went off at somewhat respectable odds of 3 to 2. By some miracle it came in first, paying out the stated odds. That cut my losses for the day, which was a relief.
Race 9 went back to the earlier pattern, with my horse coming in a fairly distant fourth.
There was no tenth race today. So that was it – seven losses, one win and one shut-out. Many of my losses were close. Some days they come in, other days they don’t. It’s like hockey – some games your team’s pucks go in and other games they keep hitting the post.
So, with Santa Anita over, it was time to try our luck at the bucket-pullers of Woodbine. I am slowly warming up to these races, though I have previously disdained them. But my brother’s enthusiasm for the harness-races is contagious, so I have even begun a systematic study of the situation, reading a few books and booting up the computer for a serious research project. I am hoping that it is possible to figure these beasts (and their drivers) out. Time will tell.
I won’t go through a race-by-race account of Woodbine/Mohawk, but will hit a few interesting highlights:
Craig and I usually have a rolling Win-3 on the go, during the Harnies. One of these ventures became quite interesting. Craig has a fondness for the number 6 at Woodbine/Mohawk. And looking the statistics that I have been gathering it is true that there seems to be a track bias towards the 6. So, we had a 6-All-6 Win 3 going in the 3rd, 4th and 5th races.
Number 6 won the 3rd race, paying $4.40 to win. That meant we were alive to the Win-3.
The middle race was the "All" bet, so we would be alive after that race regardless of who won. But, the winner of that race paid $73.40 to win, setting up potentially lucrative Win-3. That was a 6 horse.
For the last leg, we had the 6 horse again. It was bet down to almost way under even money, from 3 to 1 on the morning line. That is generally a sign of a nearly sure-thing at the Woodbine bucket-pullers. Furthermore, it had a very good driver and its trainer had a very good win percentage, also excellent signs.
But it got nipped at the wire, not quite a photo finish but close. So there went our lucrative Win-3, up in smoke.
Craig noted that it would have been a 6-6-6 Win-3, a very inauspicious number. I suppose – it certainly seemed diabolical, to lose like that.
A few races later, we had another Win-3 going, this one for much more meagre odds.
In the 6th race we had the winner, the 7 horse, which paid $4.50 to win. Not great odds for the first leg of a Win-3, but acceptable.
In the 7th race we had bet "All", with the 6 horse coming in at $6.20 to win. Again, not great odds, but respectable.
In the 8th race we had tickets on 4 and 7 horses, and the 4 came in to win. That paid only $3.90, but a win is a win.
So, we got that Win-3 (or Pick-3, another name for the bet). However, it only paid about $30 on a $2 ticket. Sort of a moral victory, I suppose.
Now, for a few random notes on the day in general.
Craig insisted on using the evil voucher machine again.
That’s the machine that he tends to have bad luck with (I avoid it altogether). It ate a $17 voucher, which was enough to get the staff to dig out his ticket and retire the machine for the day. I heard some other horse-players grumbling about it as well.
I said to Craig that he reminds me of the guy in the Kids in the Hall skit, who keeps ordering the kabob at some function, only to get food poisoning. After being treated, he returns to the party, and orders the kabob again. This happens half a dozen times or so.
I think the point of the KITH skit is that the guy is trying to impress a chick at the party. As for Craig, I think he just wants to make sure the machine gets fixed. This gets the site’s attention. Eventually, someone will give in, and replace or repair the machine.
The opening ceremony at the Winter Olympics was on one of the television above the bar. To be honest, it seemed kind of tedious to me. I usually find these ceremony events a little too earnest and boring. But I suppose for the athletes, it is pretty cool. And it gives the media something to talk about.
There was a youngish middle-aged woman betting on the horses most of the day. You don’t see that very often, as horse-racing seems to be a very male-dominated past-time She sat alone, in an area just off the regular horse-racing section, but in a place where the screens were easily viewable. She was well-dressed (includinng librarian glasses) and acted rather lady-like, though by the end of the day she was looking a bit more coquettish. But, maybe that was due to the fact that I had had three beers by the end of the day. I wasn’t hitting on her or anything, it is just nice to see some women enjoying the horses. Funny thing is, I have probably known more women who rode horses than bet on them.
Here are a few random facts about harness horses (standardbreds) that I picked up from the book I bought:
There are two styles of running, the pace and the trot. In a pace, the horse’s legs on the same side of its body work in tandem. In a trot, the diagonal front and back legs work together.
In any given race, all the horses have to run the same way, either a pace or a trot.
The pace is a faster mode of running than the trot. Over a mile, that amounts to a difference of about 3 seconds (equivalent to about 15 lengths).
If a horse ‘breaks’ (goes off the stipulated running style) it is disqualified. To prevent this, horses usually wear ‘hopplets’, which make it difficult for the horse to break into a gallop.
Of course, standardbreds are both bred and trained to run in the appropriate style.
These horses are said to have rather nice dispositions and enjoy being around people. That is in contradistinction to thoroughbreds, which are often (but not always) somewhat cantankerous.
As usual, the devil horses of Australia came on the scene, which was our cue to leave.
In summary, it was a losing day, though not a shut-out. Many of the losses were ‘near-run things’, including what would have been a fairly lucrative Win-3. So it goes.
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And here are a couple of short books you might like.
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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And here is an account of a summer job on the railroad, during my undergraduate years.
One Summer Working on the Railroad
What follows is anaccount of a few weeks one long-ago summer, when I was 19 and was working for the Canadian National Railway (CNR) on a railroad construction gang, in the wilds of north-central British Columbia, Canada.
The journal is in the form of a letter, that was never sent. Decades later, I think it has an interesting historical resonance. At times I come off like a callow youth – I plead guilty as charged. I swore a lot more in those days than I do now, but in places the writing is surprisingly good, at least in my humble opinion. And the story has a compelling narrative arc.
There were a lot of interesting and dramatic events that occurred – a number of industrial accidents being the most serious. There were also some colorful characters on the crew, which resulted in some dramatic and at times amusing conflicts and altercations. I perhaps flatter myself by including myself in that number. Or perhaps I condemn myself – I’m not sure.
So, if you want to be reminded of one of those summer jobs that was kind of life-changing, read on. My story may just kick-start some memories of your own.
The memoir/journal is about 9,000 words, a length that can usually be read in an hour or so. It is priced at 99 cents U.S. (equivalent in other currencies) and is free on Kindle Unlimited. Periodically, it will be offered as a free promotion.
U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CN661P8Z
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CN661P8Z
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CN661P8Z
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CN661P8Z
India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0CN661P8Z
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0CN661P8Z
France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0CN661P8Z
Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0CN661P8Z
Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0CN661P8Z
Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0CN661P8Z
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0CN661P8Z
Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B0CN661P8Z
Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B0CN661P8Z
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