Race Track Diary, Entry Number Two
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.
Fitzgerald’s 2 (Feb 28, 2025)
This visit was on a Friday, so the place was busier than our earlier visit, which was the previous Thursday. It was a warm day in Edmonton, given the time of year.
It was mostly an older crowd, though not exclusively so. Besides the horse-racing people, the pub/restaurant area was fairly busy. As had been the case earlier, it appeared to be an after work crowd. At least some of them were regulars – I was pretty sure that I recognized a few.
As for the horse-racing people, there were some fellows behind us that were big talkers. One fellow went on about his big-time betting (i.e. large amounts of cash). That annoyed Craig, my brother and fellow horse player. He thinks people should not boast about their wins, losses or bets too much or too loudly, it is just bad form. I tend to agree, though some excitement during a race is acceptable, else why go? (hint, it is not to earn a steady income from gambling).
There was the regular corporate selection of beers, nothing very good, which is to say no craft beers. Since I generally only have one or two, I don’t mind splurging on some local craft beer. In this case I had to settle for a Rickard’s Red. I suppose that makes me sound like a beer snob, but when you don’t plan on having many, you don’t have to go cheap.
At one point, a waitress dropped a beer glass, which managed to shatter into a lot of pieces and create a big mess. She missed a few shards when cleaning up, so I pointed them out to her. I don’t know if she appreciated that or not (I tried not to sound bossy), but it is better than someone cutting their foot. She seemed rather harried that day, I felt a bit sorry for her. She seemed surprised when I gave her a decent tip later. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot (at least that foot wouldn’t be cut by some broken glass).
One problem that day was that the machine that is used to print the programs for the various racetracks wasn’t working. We had the staff look at it, but they couldn’t get it going (they did try). With computer systems, the printers are usually the weak link.
Because of that, it was impossible to do any real handicapping. That left just picking random numbers, cheap combo bets and so forth. I prefer to study the form or program and pick horses scientifically, so the lack of a working printer was a real drag. It is more interesting that way, and your chances of making a profit are greater (I believe so, anyway).
That lead to: No wins for us, this day. That was disappointing, since I had a tidy win the last time we were at this venue. So it goes.
We left a bit early to beat the traffic, after making some early harness bets on a track which would open a bit later. I check them out that evening on the internet. We got one, for some small change winnings. Better than nothing, I guess.
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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.
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