Race Track Diary, Entry Number
Twenty-Four
24 – Billy Budd’s (Feb 21, 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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24 – Billy Budd’s (Feb 21, 2026)
It was another Saturday crowd at Budd’s, fairly crowded and fairly busy. The usual older male crowd was there, but it was supplemented with some older women and middle-aged guys. Nonetheless, we found a spot with good views of the screens in the long arc-shaped bench and settled in for some horse-racing action.
As usual, I concentrated on the action at Santa Anita.
We were too late to bet the first race, but that turned out to be a good thing, as the horse that my system picked came in fourth and the system’s second pick came in third. They were 3 year-olds, with plenty of shippers, so it was a difficult race to judge. However it was a $70000 purse, so decent quality horses. In addition, it was on the turf, and I have come to realize that turf races don’t play nice, when using speed-type handicapping. I recall Andy Beyers saying the same thing in one of his books.
The second race also had a lot of horses up from Del Mar and other locations. It was a way cheaper race, only $5000 claiming (that seems awfully low for Santa Anita). In this case, it was on the dirt, so my system did better, picking out the win, place and show horses. The second favoured horse had nice odds, so I went on that, but it got beaten out in the stretch, coming in second. Unfortunately, I had bet it to win, not place.
The third was another turf race. Once more, speed was not much of a predictor, as my pick led much of the way, then died in the stretch to come in fourth.
The fourth race was a maiden race for 4 and 5 year-olds, on the dirt. Again, my pick led most of the way, then faded in the stretch for show. The winner was picked second by my system and paid a good price, so I guess that’s something of a moral victory.
The fifth was another turf race, with a 12 horse field, so not an easy race to pick. And so it was, with none of my top three picks even finishing in the money. The place horse (the 5) was a huge long-shot and nearly won the race, before being nipped by the 3. Even for place, it paid $25.60. For what it is worth, the 3 was a grey. "Always bet the grey", it is said. I guess this race supported the ancient superstition that they are lucky horses. However, I don’t think the saying is supported by the overall evidence.
The sixth race was a mile on the dirt. It finally gave me a winner, though at not-quite-even odds. Its numbers were quite superior and it did win in a nice wire-to-wire effort. When challenged, it dug in nicely, which is always a pleasure to watch, at least when it’s your horse. Normally I am quite loathe to bet horses under even money, but sometimes you just need a win. Luckily enough, I got mine on this race.
The seventh race was on the turf again. Having been let down on the turf a couple of times, I decided to skip the race. That turned out to be a good decision, as the best that I can say about my system’s picks, was that they didn’t do very well. The system did pick out the winner as its third favorite, but that was about it.
The eighth race was a maiden race for 3-year-old fillies, so most of the horses had little or no racing history to go on, often just workouts. Having no way of judging such horses, I gave this one a pass too. Once more, that turned out to be a good decision, as the horse that the system preferred came in third.
The ninth race was on the turf again, this time on the course that
ends in a downhill slope. Given my lack of success on the turf,
that made this race another one to pass up. Plus, it had a big
field, 13 horses, each with plenty of past performance lines, and
I was just too tuckered out to punch so many numbers into the
calculator. Which was just as well, as my preferred horse came in
dead last and the other two didn’t do much better.The tenth was another maiden race for 3-year-old filles, so I gave that a pass for the reasons stated above. Once more, that turned out to be precient, as my top pick came in third and my other picks ended up out-of-the-money.
And that was it for Santa Anita, an overall losing day with the thorougbreds: 4 losses, 1 win and 5 skipped races. A couple of my losses came close, but faded in the stretch for place or show. None of the skipped races had any opportunity cost, as my picks didn’t do well anyway. The best I can say is, it could have been worse.
As I noted earlier, it was a fair-sized crowd to start the day, but it dwindled over the afternoon. But they were a subdued bunch, for the most part. Here are a few things I overheard:
One fellow was what I might call a quiet shouter. He did cheer his horses on, but in a quiet and desparate voice – "come on 5, come on 5."
"Come off the rail baby! Come on Joe!"
"The ouside post is always adventageous there." (referring to Oaklawn)
"He was bug boy at ... (did’t catch the track)."
"The apple didn’t fall far from the tree." (referring to a jockey, trainer or horse?)
"Bet the speed til you puke."
The English waitress mentioned to a customer that "she was going to get married in the summer." "Did you meet him here?" "No, we have been dating since age 17." Such a likeable sounding lass.
She also noted that her boyfriend had some connection with the Oilers hockey team – driver of the bus, perhaps? So, they attended a Christas party where most of the team was present. "Until then, I didn’t realize what a big deal the Oilers were." She said they were all very nice.
Then, it was time for the harness-races at Woodbine/Mohawk:
I won’t claim to have been carefully handicapping these races. I am still gathering and analysing data on the bucket-pullers, so mostly these are "fun bets". That usually means kicking some cash into a pot with my brother, then betting from that, mostly exotics.
Craig likes to bet what he calls a "rolling Pick-3". That’s what it sounds like: keep a Pick-3 bet going all the time, usually a new bet for each race, though sometimes that isn’t possible. Sometimes we will go with a triactor, and occasionally a Pick-4.
I am agnostic when it comes to these exotic bets. Part of me says "takeout is too high". Part of me says "room for lots of angle-bets with good odds, that the crowd doesn’t know about". Hopefully, once I have done enough research, I will have a better idea of what works and doesn’t work at the harnies.
Other than that, I was looking for big odds-drops from morning-line to final-odds. This is a standard strategy. As far as I can tell, it is quite an accurate predictor at the harness races, though one has to be careful of avoiding super-low or super-high odds when choosing this method.
Also, there are some post-bias factors at Woodbine/Mohawk. But they might produce quite a few short-priced winners, but no overall profit.
Anyway, we came amazingly close on a 6-6-6-6 Pick-4, though we missed the final 6, which came in second. That would have paid decently, but not spectacularly. So it goes. Threes sixes is bad enough, four might have brought on the apocalypse.
We did pick up one of the rolling Pick-3 bets, though the winning ticket was fairly small. Still, better than a kick-in-the-head, as it is said.
I also made 6 win bets, playing some of the mid-post bias, while angling for decent odds. Two of them came in, at half-decent payoffs, so I broke-even on those bets.
And that was it for this visit. Not much luck with the thoroughbreds, but pretty decent results at the bucket-pullers.
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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 a long-distance cycling on the Kettle Valley Rail-Trail in British Columbia:
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.
After reading this account, you should have a good sense of whether the trail is right for you. If you do decide to ride the trail, it will be an experience you will never forget.
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