Race Track Diary, Entry Number Twenty-One 21 – Billy Budd’s (Jan 31, 2026)

 

Race Track Diary, Entry Number

 Twenty-One

21 – Billy Budd’s (Jan 31, 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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• 21 – Billy Budd’s (Jan 31, 2026)

  
  

  • We took a week off from the races, as Craig and his wife were invited to a relative’s place; meanwhile I was suffering from a minor virus. But everthing was back to normal by the next weekend, so it was back to Billy Budd’s for some horseracing fun.

  • It was a Saturday, so there was a big crowd at the horseracing section of Budd’s. They must have a good lunch special on Saturdays.

  • In fact, it was actually a full-house near the screens, so we had to sit for a while at an off-screen table. But that was ok, as it gave me a chance to annotate a program for Santa Anita, to assist in later crunching of numbers, and for Craig to peruse the bucket-pullers of Woodbine/Mohawk.

  • By keeping a close watch on the horseracing section, I soon detected a couple of seats opening up. I checked it out with some friendly older gents who were sitting nearby those seats, who gave us thumbs-up to move in. One fellow said he hoped that "moving his ass" would bring him a bit of luck. Sure, why not.

  • I don’t know if it brought him any luck, but it seemed to work for me, at least on the Santa Anita races:

    • For the first and second races at Santa Anita, I was shut-out, due to the lack of seating.

    • On the third race, my numers showed two horses as clear choices. Feeling a bit cautious, I picked the one with lower odds, though still remarkably good odds. It and the other horse the numbers liked, dueled it out with my choice narrowly winning. I must confess, however, that I had bet my horse to place, so it didn’t really matter much to me. But it paid a surprisingly nice price to place, so I didn’t kick myself too hard.

    • In the fourth race, there were three horses with very comparable figures. It was also a short field. So, I took a flyer on one of them, whose odds seemed good. Again, I wimped out, putting down show money. It actually won and paid a nice price to win, a little over 3 to 1. But the show ticket was a joke, not doing much more than paying for the bet. Clearly, a lot of people had bet the same as I had. So it goes.

    • The fifth race had only one horse with high numbers, by my system, as two others with good numbers had been scratched. With odds of nearly 10 to 1, I could hardly say no. But I did scale my bet down a bit, as I assumed the crowd must know something that I did’t know. Apparently they didn’t, as my horse came in first and payed-off very nicely on my win ticket.

    • Picking three races in a row was starting to feel a bit spooky.

    • The sixth race was a Maiden Special Weight race, meaning none of the horses had won a race in their life yet. In fact, only one of them had actually even run a race. The others had no form at all, other than workouts. I don’t really know how to evaluate workouts, so I was inclined to skip the race. But there was a big odds-drop on one horse, so I took a shot on it and the horse that had run a race previously, putting a token bet on an exactor (that means a smaller than normal bet, though honestly all my bets are token bets by a serious player’s standard). Anyway, that duo came in, so I picked up some more token winnings.

    • I got shut-out on the seventh race, as I was printing off a program for the Woodbine/Mohawk harness races, when the printer ran out of paper. That necessitated getting a staff member to refill the machine. It reminded me of office-days, waiting on the secretary to refill the printer (some offices didn’t trust just anyone to fill the printer, even when they were highly-skilled data scientists/analysts). That took a bit of time, which made me miss the race. I probably would have bet the winner on that race, based on my numbers, but that is just a hypothetical.

    • The eighth and ninth race sent me back to the real world, since neither of my horses were in the money.

    • There was no tenth race, so that was it for Santa Anita.

  • With the thoroughbreds of Santa Anita complete, I could now indulge myself in a libation or two. My firm rule is to avoid any alcohol during the thoroughbred session, as it can inflame one’s animal spirits (as John Maynard Keynes put it), thus leading to non-optimal betting strategies. However, I will indulge a bit for the harness races.

  • Here’s another observation, inspired by Keynes.

    
    
    

  • The cute young waitress who served our section had an accent, which everyone seemed to remark upon. Most people thought she must be from Australia or New Zealand, but no, she was actually from England. She added that her home town was near Wales, so that probably gave her accent a bit of a Welsh tilt, which people were mistaking for Australia.

  • The older gent who sat next to us bantered with her over the accent. He expressed some surprise that she came to Canada rather than going to Australia. I suppose that was in reference to the weather, though perhaps he meant that her accent would blend well with the locals down under. However, she said that English people are often quite curious about Canada, maybe even moreso than Australia.

  • With the larger crowd, there were more people chatting and cheering their horses on:

    • A voice from down below:

      • "Is that the five on the rail coming up fast?"

      • "The six quit on me! Damn it!"

      • (this fellow must have been watching a different screen than I was, because coincidentally the six did not quit on me, as that was about the same time as I won a 10 to 1 bet on a six horse).

    • Some well-dressed middle-aged ladies across the way, not too excitable:

      • "My mouth gets dry when I eat chocolate."

      • "Was that your horse that just won?"

      • "I suppose it probably was. Well, I guess we can leave now."

    • Some serious handicappers below us (maybe insiders, referring to the local harness races):

      • "That horse was just loping. Just loping and he still won."

      • "Just look at his fractions."

      • "Yeah, just great fractions."

      • "No surprise, the trainer is a very sharp guy."

      • "And the driver is one of the best around."

      • "Yeah, piece of cake."

  • We now directed our attention to the harness races at Woodbine/Mohawk.

  • I had been doing some analysis of the bucket-pullers over the previous week or so. It involved a fair bit of tedious spreadsheet setup and data entry. With only four cards (ten races in each, so about forty races), there weren’t any obvious angles with speed ratings and such.

  • However, I did detect a very significant signal from large odds-drops. This has long been something that players watch for, assuming that it means inside information, whether of the honest of scurrilous sort.

  • So, I paid special attention to that during this card. It was still a useful angle, though not profitable on this day.

  • Nonetheless, we picked up a few winners, so I kept most of my profits from Santa Anita intact. Craig located a triactor ticket that he hadn’t realized was a winner, so he recovered most of his losses too (it was a so-so payoff).

  • Most of the crowd had thinned out, but a couple (man and woman) came into one of the horseracing section booths. It seemed like an odd choice, as it was quite empty now. But, perhaps they didn’t want to be seen, so a mostly empty horseracing section would be just the ticket. Hardly anyone present and those that were there were focussed on the horses.

  • Near the end of the harness races, a new waitress came on shift. so she asked how we were doing with the horses. We gave a non-committal shrug, while she stared at the screen and said "I know nothing about this." Me neither.

  • Then the devil-horses of Australia came on the screen. Time to go.

  • I won most of the thoroughbred races at Santa Anita and lost most of the harness races at Woodbine/Mohawk, but kept a reasonable profit for the day anyway.

  • And that about sums it up for this trip.

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And here are a couple of short books you might like.

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 cycling the Kettle Valley Rail-Trail:

A Ride on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail

U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GBG8JE0
U.K.:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GBG8JE0 
Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01GBG8JE0
Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01GBG8JE0  
Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01GBG8JE0
Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01GBG8JE0
India:  https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01GBG8JE0

France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B01GBG8JE0

Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B01GBG8JE0

Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B01GBG8JE0

Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B01GBG8JE0

Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B01GBG8JE0

Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B01GBG8JE0

The book is only 99 cents U.S. (equivalent price in other currencies). It is also available on Kindle Unlimited and is occasionally on free promotion.

The Kettle Valley Rail Trail is one of the longest and most scenic biking and hiking trails in Canada. It covers a good stretch of the south-central interior of British Columbia, about 600 kilometers of scenic countryside. British Columbia is one of the most beautiful areas of Canada, which is itself a beautiful country, ideal for those who appreciate natural splendour and achievable adventure in the great outdoors.

The trail passes through a great variety of geographical and geological regions, from mountains to valleys, along scenic lakes and rivers, to dry near-desert condition grasslands. It often features towering canyons, spanned by a combination of high trestle bridges and long tunnels, as it passes through wild, unpopulated country. At other times, it remains quite low, in populated valleys, alongside spectacular water features such as beautiful Lake Okanagan, an area that is home to hundreds of vineyards, as well as other civilized comforts.

The trail is a nice test of one’s physical fitness, as well as one’s wits and adaptability, as much of it does travel through true wilderness. The views are spectacular, the wildlife is plentiful and the people are friendly. What more could one ask for?

What follows is a journal of two summers of adventure, biking most of the trail in the late 1990s. It is about 33,000 words in length (2 to 3 hours reading), and contains numerous photographs of the trail. There are also sections containing a brief history of the trail, geology, flora and fauna, and associated information.