Race Track Diary, Entry Number Fourteen

Billy Budd’s (Oct 25, 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.

14 – Century Mile 7 (October 25, 2025)
- On a pleasant late October day, it was back to Century Mile, the actual racetrack near the International Airport.
- Early in the afternoon, things weren’t too busy, but by early evening we had a spot of trouble finding our car in the parking lot, as it was nearly full by then.
- Traffic on the freeway had been horrible that day, so my brother was late picking me up. But that gave me extra time to hit some golf balls into the backyard net, always a good idea.
- Unfortunately, it also meant that I was rushed when he arrived and forgot my reading glasses. Thus, reading the program was an adventure in squinting and guessing, as the numbers are rather small. A quick perusal a few days later showed me that the results were not very different, with or without the glasses. I didn’t make that many mistakes and the mistakes on the high side were generally offset by mistakes on the low side, so the overall average numbers were pretty close. This supports Enrico Fermi’s principle of approximation.
- For this day, I decided to key in on Santa Anita once more. It was starting at about the time we arrived, so that made it possible to analyze the entire card, not being distracted by other tracks. I don’t like to spread my handicapping too thin, especially when I don’t have my reading glasses and my calculations are all of the eyeball/mental arithmetic variety.
- Almost immediately upon sitting down, there was some entertainment:
  - One older gentleman was being quite enthusiastic, as were several others, yelling "Come on 5! Come on 5! Beat on! Beat on!"
  - This turned out to be one of the later races at Gulfstream Park. He must have had all three of first horses in a bet called a Superfecta, where the bettor picks the first four horses in the order they finished. If a few long shots come in, it can pay off very handsomely.
  - It was close, very close, a photo finish. Did he get it, we wondered? He made the sign of the cross, silently. It could pay off, people were saying.
  - But sadly, it didn’t. The horse he needed (the 5) did come in second, but his other horse (the 8) was beat out in the stretch by the 11 horse. There was an inquiry but it didn’t affect the outcome. He needed 10/5/12/8 but they finished 10/5/12/11. Tough break.
  - It turned out that it paid $1100 for a 20 cent bet. Perhaps his bet would have paid somewhat less, perhaps somewhat more. But either way, it would have been a nice piece of change.
  - One of his mates kidded him. "You did not pray, my son. Had you only prayed." I don’t know if he saw this fellow make the sign of the cross or not. Had they not been friends, that would have been reasonable ‘not guilty’ grounds for murder. But, the fellow who lost took it in good spirits. That’s just how the game should be played.
- It was that kind of day. People were bantering with each other.
- At one point, I said to my brother Craig "I’d order a beer, but it is a bit too early for that." That was during the fourth race. The fellow sitting next to us said "It’s never too early for beer."
- Maybe that’s true, but it is a long drive back home on a busy highway from the racetrack at the airport. So, discretion is called for. Besides, immoderate consumption can lead to impulsive betting, which is fun, but it rarely pays off.
- Later, when I did order a beer, I asked that fellow if I could take one of the napkins at his table, as my beer was a bit ‘spilly’ (the glass had been overfilled). He replied with a grin; "You spilled beer? That’s alcohol abuse." But, he gave me the napkin.
- As for the races at Santa Anita, it was a funny day. Here is a blow-by-blow account:
  - I worked out my numbers, squinting at the form as best I could, then transferring the numbers to a small notebook I had. Then I did some mental addition and averaging on the numbers in the notebook, to handicap the race. This was to be the process for the rest of the day (note to self: remember your reading glasses).
  - We were a little late for the first race, so I gave it a pass.
  - The second race only had four horses in it (what’s with that?). I bet an exactor, 4 and 3. The 4 horse was the overwhelming favorite. His numbers were very good, so there was no surprise there. It won the race, but the 3 fell way back, with the 1 horse winning. So, I picked the winner but not the place horse.
  - The third race was a maiden race (no horses had yet won a race). It also was a short field, with only five horses, only two of which had run a race in its lifetime. The only numbers for the rest of the field were times for workouts, for which I don’t feel enough confidence to use them. So, I passed on the race.
  - The fourth race had six horses in it, so that was more bettable. That said, one of the horses was scratched (owner decided to pull it from the race), so maybe not so bettable. At any rate, I worked out my numbers and identified a decent play, a favourite with good speed numbers and a longer-odds horse with good numbers and good odds. I boxed those two horses (so that the bet paid off regardless of the order of finish). Those two came in, with a fairly decent six-to-one payoff. So, a nice little win.
  - The fifth race was another five horse effort. The betting on the favourite started off at ridiculous odds of 1-9. Eventually it went off at about 1-2, still very low odds. That said, it did have far superior numbers to the rest of them. So, I bet it and a long-shot, though a different long-shot came in. So, no money, but a moral victory, I suppose.
  - The sixth race had a seven horse field, so it took some time to work out my numbers. In fact, it took so long that I got shut out (too late to make a bet, the betting was closed). That turned out to be fortuitous, as it came in 1-5 and I intended to bet 2-5. So, just as no news is good news, no bet was a good bet.
  - The seventh race had six horses, another short field. The 6 horse had very good numbers, the equal of any of the others, and it was going off at a very good price. I decided to just go win on it, then backed off for place. With its odds, I thought that place would still be a good price. Boy, was I wrong. It paid $10.60 to win but only $2.60 to place. To boot, it paid the same $2.60 to show. So the odds were definitely messed up, not at all like economic theory would predict. The second and third place horses were the favorites, so they also paid next to nothing ($2.10 to place, as it was a dead heat for second). It was nice to win the bet, but it paid a lot less than I expected. A funny race, indeed.
  - The eighth race had a big field, eleven horses. In fact, with so many horses to evaluate, I only got up to horse 7 before the race was ready to start. My handicapping had also been delayed via ordering a beer, paying for it and chatting with the waitress. Then, horror of horrors, the beer came in a Bud Light glass, though I do think it was the same as an earlier beer that I ordered, some sort of local craft beer. So, it was another passed race via shutout. The race came in 5-2, and paid pretty well. Both of those horses had good numbers. I probably would have bet the 5, but I can’t say for sure that I would have bet the 2, if I had worked out the other horses in the race.
  - The ninth race was actually a very big field, fourteen horses. It took some doing to work out all these numbers, but I managed it, by studiously avoiding distractions. Yet, even with all these horses, the favourite 11 horse was bet down to even money, with most of the other horses at 10 to 1 or higher odds. I was rather vocal in my surprise at that, as its numbers were good, but not much better than the rest. But I guess the crowd knew what it was doing, as it won the race. Given the inherent weirdness of the odds, I decided to pass on the race.
  - The tenth race was a shorter field, at eight horses. The 8 horse won, though it only had one race under its belt and not great speed numbers. However, it had won that earlier race, so the crowd rather liked it. I didn’t, which was too bad for me, as my pick came in fourth, though it had by far the best numbers in the race. So it goes.
- Craig put down some wagers on the bucket-pullers at Woodbine before we left. There were some big races there, Breeders Stakes. It is rather surprising how big the stakes can be for these harness races, which I avoid like the plague, with the exception of throwing a little money into the bucket pool with Craig, just for laughs. But, each to his own.
- I left under the impression that I had a small net loss for the day, but when I checked the vouchers the next day, I realized that I had actually made a small profit. I probably got that impression due to working out so many numbers, yet passing on a number of races. That is the smart thing to do, but not easy advice for the average horse player to follow.

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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

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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.

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

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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