Race Track Diary, Entry Number
Twelve
Rosslyn Hotel (Prospectors Room) and Dover Hotel (Oct 3, 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.
12 – Rosslyn Hotel (Prospectors Room) and Dover Hotel (Oct 3, 2025)A Dark Horse
My brother Craig had had a slight medical mishap during the previous week, so were obliged to take a week off from our sojourns to bet the horses. Fortunately, he healed up fairly quickly, so we headed back to the Rosslyn, to test our wits against the ponies again.
It was a rather quiet day, with only about a dozen other players at the horse-racing section of the Prospectors Room. The VLT section was also sparsely populated, so at least we were spared the constant theme music which emanates from these noisome machines.
I picked up a nice exactor at my second shot at betting that day, basing all my bets on Santa Anita, a well-known California venue, located in the greater L.A. area.
Beyond that, I had a few close calls, but no other payoffs. However, the exactor was enough to put me nicely in the black for the day, picking up the subsequent losses.
Craig picked up a triactor (picking win, place, show on the same race). However a low-odds favourite won the race, so the payoff was not exactly astronomical. I don’t know if he hit on any other bets; if he did, he didn’t talk about it.
There were a couple of things to note about some of the races that I watched and bet on:
In one race, there was a duel between two horses. They both seemed very determined to win. But at about the final turn, one of them shot ahead and just took off, beating the rest of the field by a good 20 lengths. It seemed like it could have gone on like that all day long. It was like a low-rent Secretariat, who won the Belmont in 1973 by that margin. That 1973 Belmont is still a pretty amazing race to watch, and easy to find on Youtube.
Then, another race that I watched was almost the polar opposite. I was naturally focusing on one of the horses that I bet on, for the exactor. One of my horses was easily in the lead and the other looked like it had a good shot at second, running in a closely packed group. But as I watched, I thought "that horse is really trying, but something isn’t working for it". Shortly after that, one of the horses went down. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as the case may be), the camera was focused primarily on the lead horse, so I couldn’t verify whether or not it was my horse who went down. On the replay, they must have cut that out of the loop, as we didn’t even see the mishap.
It’s always sad when that happens to a horse. If they break a leg, the prognosis is very poor. Some animal rights people key in on this, in an effort to ban the sport. But the obvious truth is, horses will have mishaps, whether they are race-horses or just casual riding horses. It literally is in the nature of the beast, as their leg-bone structure is rather delicate, given their weight. Banning horse-racing wouldn’t change that.
All told, I think race-horses probably have a pretty good life, compared to a lot of animals (that would also include a lot of humans). They are generally well-fed and well taken care of. People groom them and pamper them in other ways – after all, they are major monetary investments for the owner(s). And I don’t think it is a stretch to say they are loved, in the manner that humans often bond with companion animals of all types. Yes, there are exceptions, but there are always exceptions to any rule.
There were some interesting human facets to the day, as well.
There was a middle-aged woman playing the races, who wasn’t accompanied by a husband or boyfriend. You don’t see that very often. From overhearing her conversation with another player (it couldn’t be helped), she seemed to be very knowledgeable about the horses. In other words, she was a serious horse-player. It made me wonder, did she work in one of the stables during her youth? Or was she from the country and grew up around horses? Or maybe someone significant in her life introduced her to the sport?
Later in the afternoon, a blowhard came in who began talking loudly. He spoke about some city (I didn’t catch which one), where "the women were easy". He continued to ramble on in this vein. Someone asked him "what do you mean, easy?". He answered "you know what I mean – easy". Then the interlocutor said "I thought you were married." He replied "that is irrelevant to this conversation." But that seemed to throw him. I guess he wasn’t expecting it. So, after that, he changed the subject and quietened down. The truth is, after a certain point in life, most guys don’t like listening to blowhards talking like that. Especially when they are attempting to handicap the horse-races.
Towards the evening, some young after-work guys came in. They were quite enthusiastic for a race or two, but gave up pretty quickly after losing some money. It was Friday night, so I suppose they had more exciting plans for the night – no point blowing all their money at the track. There was booze to be drank and women to be chased.
On the way back, we stopped for a few minutes at another off-track spot, the Dover Hotel.
It is in a very working-class part of town. Some people might consider it sketchy or scary, but it is mainly just working class and a little rough around the edges. A salt-of-the-Earth type of place, actually.
It is located very close to one of the main CNR yards (Canadian National Railways). That is a big industrial facility, with high solid fences all around. I suppose that is partly for security and partly for noise abatement, as there are modest residential areas nearby.
The Dover is an old hotel, going back for many decades, in fact well over 100 years (it was first built in 1912 under a different name). But given all that, it isn’t in bad shape. I think a lot of the rooms are let out on a monthly basis, by fellows who don’t have any other home, but do have a steady income (whether a job or a pension).
The horse-race betting room was kind of nice. The furniture looked comfortable and it was far from the noisy VLTs. So, basically kind of homey and charming place, in a down-scale sort of way.
Craig wanted to make a bet that he forgot to put in at the other place, so we stayed for a few minutes while he did that. I also think he wanted to show me the place, as part of my tour of off-track betting joints.
There were some older gents there, who seemed quite friendly, with plenty of bantering among the group. They were discussing jobs that they had worked at, the merits of different trades, how tough a bus-driver’s job is, that sort of thing.
Basically, it was a sort of old-timey place, rather like the ones that I would sometimes go to in my youth, when I wanted a trip into a working-class watering hole.
We agreed that it might be an interesting place to revisit, then headed back home.
As noted earlier, my exactor win on the Santa Anita race put me over the top for the day, so my streak of good fortune was back on, after a couple of losing days (8 profitable days out of 12).
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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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And here is an account of backpacking in Northern Ontario, that a friend and I did some years back. It also has a bit of canoing and some day hikes with my wife.
A 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.
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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