Race Track Diary, Entry Number
Nineteen
19 – Billy Budd’s (Jan 2, 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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19 – Billy Budd’s (Jan 2, 2026)
What with all the usual business of the Christmas season, as well as some big snowfalls, we took a long break and returned on the Friday after New Year’s Day to Budd’. On this day my brother Craig and I were joined by my son Scott, who has occasionally joined us, when he had a spare day to while away some time with dad and uncle.
It was a surprisingly sparse crowd for a Friday, but Craig informed me that New Year’s Day is a major day at the tracks, so most horseplayers were probably exhausted by that (out of both money and energy, I suppose). So, it was just us and a few stalwarts.
We arrived at the usual time, a little before 2:00 p.m., at about the time that Santa Anita was beginning. I suppose this would have been more appropriate for the pre-Christmas visit, then it would be a Santa Anita Claus visit.
I have had pretty good results with the Santa Anita races, so this suited me just fine.
Scott and I bet the Santa Anita card, while Craig bet some of that, as well as bucket-pullers, once they got going, later in the day. Since Scott and I were betting Santa Anita, we split the duties for computing our numbers, he would do one race, I would do the next. Once we got down to the betting, we could each make our own choices.
We were too late to bet the first race, though the system’s preferred horse did come in, at $18.40 to win.
For the second race, our preferred horse came in to win at 6.80 for a $2 bet. I got that, as did Scott, though I don’t know if he had a win ticket or an exactor. In either case, he was quite happy about it.
For the third race, the system’s top two horses were short odds, so I bet a different horse that also had good speed and pace, as well as nice odds. That came in at $11 on a $2 bet to win.
I was feeling pretty good about things, but then hit the skids on the 4th, 5th and 6th races. One of those came close on a show bet, coming in fourth in the 4th race. It was a 30-1 odds horse on the morning line, so it was worth a shot. For the 5th and 6th, my decent-odds with a chance both came in second last.
On the 7th race, the system picked a fast horse with good odds. I decided to go place on that one, and it came in at $5 for a place ticket.
On the 8th race and final race (it was a short card at Santa Anita), my fast horse with good odds came in second last. So, I was either picking paying horses or second-last horses today (one fourth as well). So it goes.
Scott didn’t win any more races, but missed a couple of nice plays, which came in second by a nose (he had win tickets). I guess I was lucky with the place betting, though in the long run Scott’s method works best, in my experience (i.e. sticking to win tickets). However, I felt a bit bad for him – playing the horses with your offspring (even when they are adults) is a bit tough, as you always want to see them get a good result, whether that be in school, work or sports (such as the race-track).
With Santa Anita done, the serious handicapping was over for me and Scott.
That also meant I could have a beer or two. I don’t usually drink more than that, but that is especially so at the track. Alcohol and winning bets at the horseraces don’t really go together very well (yes, you can get lucky sometimes). Plus, working out numbers, whether via mental math estimation or the use of a calculator does tax the old noggin, so it is best to keep it in good working order during the handicapping process.
Scott and Craig also ordered a beer. Scott was getting peckish, so he ordered some sort of noodle dish, which he said was fine.
The waitress came by to take our order. She was a smiley one, with a nice sense of humour:
Her: Have the horsies been good to you fellows today?
Me: They have been to me.
Her: Really? That’s good. Nobody ever says that to me when I ask.
(that exchange probably upped her tip by at least 5 percentage points).
The harness races were now starting at Woodbine, which Craig enjoys. So, Scott and I kicked in a few bucks to get some action on them, while we waited for Craig to finish betting his bucket-pullers.
To that end, I bought a program for Woodbine, to attempt some modified speed handicapping.
We weren’t too successful, though we did have one amusing win. In that case, we won a pick-3 (where you pick the winners of 3 races in a row in a single bet). But nothing but favorites came in during those three races, so it paid a whopping $26.90 on a $2 bet.
But these exotic bets can add up, if you start making multiple bets. For example, this ‘winner’ was a bet on All/4/2,7; that meant any horse in the first leg, the 4 horse in the second leg and the 2 or 7 horse in the third leg.
The winners were 6-4-2, which was one of our choices. But they were all fairly short-priced, at $4.10, $7.30, $3.80 to win respectively. Since these were low-odds horses, the combo bet only paid $26.90.
But wait! There’s more! We had joke money on the bet, only $0.20 per bet. So, that ticket paid a $2.69.
Fortunately I had suggested to Craig that we double up the bet, so we actually had two tickets, which brought the total to $5.38. Split three ways, that was $1.79 each. Hurrah!
But it was a moral victory and that counts for something. (I will try not to gloat.)
We then parlayed that big win to the next possible pick-3. We bet 6,9/4,6/6.
In the first leg, the 6 came in and paid $2.70 to win. So it was an enormous favorite. It was named "Get Wings" and it did exactly that, closing from second by a head at the 3/4 point to win by 3 lengths. It was impressive. What was also impressive is that it had a price drop from 5-2 odds to 1-5 in the last few minutes of betting. Conversely, the horse who came in second went from 8-1 in the morning line to closing odds of 99-1. Things that make you go hmmmm. Obviously, the inside money ‘knew something’.
In the second leg, our two picks came in second and third, so that was that. They both paid joke money, so I guess it didn’t really matter, it would have been another joke payday.
So we packed it in. The Australian races were starting (it was already tomorrow there). It always looks so sunny and cheerful there. A spacious racetrack too.
They put some weird-looking red headgear on the horses there and in the U.K.. That is rather jarring – a vaguely Satanic look. Apparently it calms the horses down (the ears block sound).
On the way out we caught a bit of the International Junior Hockey tournament, where Canada had beaten Latvia 2 to 1. Another screen had New York Rangers beating the Florida Panthers (the game ended 5-1 for NYR).
Speaking of hockey I mentioned to Craig that I watched a replay of the famed 1975 New Years Eve game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Russian Red Army. It was a very good game, though rather different from games nowadays. I mentioned that one of the players, Larry Robinson, looked a lot like one of our old racetrack cronies.
At the mention of this fellow, Craig said "yeah, he’d slit your throat to win a bet, but then he’d stitch you up too." Racing talk in those days was very colourful.
If you are a Canadian, the former result (Canada over Latvia) was good. If you are an Oilers fan, the latter result was good (NYR over Florida). The 1975 result was good too, but it was kind of late to make a bet on it.
Plus, I won 3 out of 7 thoroughbred bets (picked up some stable-coin), so all was right with the world.
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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