Race Track Diary, Entry Number
Thirty-Seven
37 – Billy Budd’s (July 4, 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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37 – Billy Budd’s (July 04, 2026)
This Saturday was quite auspicious for a number of reasons:
First off, it was the American holiday of Independence Day. That would probably mean some interesting diversions at the U.S. racetracks; fireworks, flag-waving and other patriotic signalling. And this was the 250th anniversary, so there could be some interesting shows.
Secondly, the World Cup of Soccer (or footie, as the English say) was on. Canada had made the Round of 16 and would be playing Morocco on this day. That might be interesting too.
Thirdly, the track at Seattle was having their wiener dog races. That could be good for a laugh, as these are not the world’s most clever dogs. Sometimes, just getting them to run in the correct direction is an achievement.
Having said all that, it was actually a rather sparse crowd by the time we arrived. I guess soccer and wiener dogs just don’t have quite the appeal I expected.
Once again, we missed most of the thoroughbred races, as other commitments took priority early in the day. I did try to repeat my success of the previous week, by looking for a big odds drop to bet on, at the Woodbine thoroughbreds. However, not such betting opportunities arose, either at Woodbine or Gulfstream.
Craig, however, picked up a superfecta at Gulfstream (pick win-place-show-fourth), though it didn’t pay as well as we hoped it would. It was a good race; the winner really turned on the jets to win at the wire.
So, to the bucket-pullers then:
In Race #1, I bet the #6 horse to place. He led most of the way, but tired in the stretch, finishing well out of the money.
In the Second Race, I bet the #6 again, but it never really fired, finishing well back. A heavy favourite (2 to 5) won. As Craig puts it, no bankers will have to jump out of windows after that race.
I should note that right about then, some storm warnings came on the screen. No, that’s not the name of a horse, but rather cautions about developing thunderstorms and the possibility of a tornado. We didn’t actually get any bad weather during the evening, though a tornado did touch down in a campground in the general area of Edmonton, causing a few serious, but non-fatal injuries to some campers. It has been a rather wild-weather summer so far on the Canadian prairies.
I skipped the third and fourth races, as Craig and I were alive to some Win-3 bets. Besides, there didn’t seem to be any obvious choices to prefer. That said, my system would have gotten the 3rd race (Dublin Dasher), but would have failed on the fourth, with none of my picks even finishing in the money.
I was getting thirsty and impatient by the fifth race, so I made a beer bet on the #3 horse to show. It did win the race but was a very heavy favourite, so it only paid 2.50 to win and 2.10 to place and show. That would seem to indicate that the track had to dip into the minus pool on the show bet, so that was a sort of moral victory. Plus, I could now have a beer.
In Race #6, I bet on the #6 horse to show. It had some good numbers (post bias and late kick) and was going off at 7 to 1. It obliged by running to form, closing from 6th to 3rd in the stretch. In so doing, it paid a fairly reasonable $4.50 per $2 bet in the process.
I skipped the 7th race, as I was busy devouring a small pepperoni and mushroom pizza, which was pretty good for pub food. Plus, I was pretty darn hungry and hunger is the best spice that there is.
In the 8th, I bet the #2 horse to win, but it got overtaken in the stretch, losing by a couple of lengths.
In the 9th, none of my preferred horses came in the money. The good old #6 came in to win, paying just shy of 20 bucks. So, if one was going for the post bias, that would have made your day.
In the 10th, my preferred horses were 4-5 and the race came in 5-4. I picked the 4 to win, as it had much better odds (3.5 to 1 vs just under even money). In the long run, that’s a good plan but it stings in the moment.
We left a bit early, skipping the 11th and 12th races, just in case there was a major storm brewing.
In summary, not a great day, but not a disaster. I got 2 out of 7 races, though one of those only paid itself back and the other paid for itself and another race. So overall, a relatively small loss for the day (but still a loss).
On the Road with Bronco Billy
Sit back and go on a ten day trucking trip in a big rig, through western North America, from Alberta to Texas, and back again. Explore the countryside, learn some trucking lingo, and observe the shifting cultural norms across this great continent.
Amazon U.S.: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon U.K.: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Germany: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00X2IRHSK
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What follows is an account of a ten day journey through western North America during a working trip, delivering lumber from Edmonton Alberta to Dallas Texas, and returning with oilfield equipment. The writer had the opportunity to accompany a friend who is a professional truck driver, which he eagerly accepted. He works as a statistician for the University of Alberta, and is therefore is generally confined to desk, chair, and computer. The chance to see the world from the cab of a truck, and be immersed in the truck driving culture was intriguing. In early May 1997 they hit the road.
Some time has
passed since this journal was written and many things have changed
since the late 1990’s. That renders the journey as not just a
geographical one, but also a historical account, which I think only
increases its interest.
We were fortunate to have an
eventful trip - a mechanical breakdown, a near miss from a tornado,
and a large-scale flood were among these events. But even without
these turns of fate, the drama of the landscape, the close-up view of
the trucking lifestyle, and the opportunity to observe the cultural
habits of a wide swath of western North America would have been
sufficient to fill up an interesting journal.
The
travelogue is about 20,000 words, about 60 to 90 minutes of reading,
at typical reading speeds.
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And here’s an account of some road trips in south-western Alberta:
A Selection of Back-Road Trips Around
Southwest Alberta
There are two main aspects to a road trip: the journey and the destination. Sometimes the trip is all about the journey, sometimes it’s all about the destination. Usually it is a little of both.
This collection of back-roads journeys feature a little bit of both of these aspects. Some accounts are more about the ‘journey’, such as a road trip on scenic Highway 22. Others are more about the ‘destination’, such as the show-jumping at Spruce Meadows. I hope you will enjoy reading some of these accounts and maybe give them a spin for yourself.
Southwest 1 – A Road Trip on Scenic Highway 22
Southwest 2 – The Equestrian Competitions at Spruce Meadows (Calgary)
Southwest 3 – The Bar U Ranch, south of Long View
Southwest 4 – Kananaskis Country
Southwest 5 – Blackfoot Crossing
Southwest 6 – Back-roads, from the Prairies to the Foothills: Brazeau Dam Trip
Southwest 7 – A Back-roads Trip to Hinton and the Forestry Trunk Roads
The reader may wonder “what about the Ice-fields Parkway?” or “where is a visit to Banff?” I would answer, that these famous destinations are covered very nicely by other books. This account is meant to focus on some less travelled areas, thus the “back-roads” descriptor.
I should note that the other three quadrants of Alberta also have a lot of interesting back-roads journeys, but those are material for some other books which will be published in due time.
Amazon U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon U.K: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0DCMJP47G
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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?
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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