Race Track Diary, Entry Number Twenty-Eight
28 – Billy Budd’s (April 11, 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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28 – Century Mile, Billy Budd’s (April 11, 2026)
It was a pleasant Saturday afternoon, which had people eager to get out of the house. In addition, there was an afternoon hockey game, with the Oilers playing the L.A. Kings. The season was drawing to a close, so all of these games were now significant in terms of who gets into the playoffs and where they place.
Thus, Budd’s was very busy. Its parking lot is not huge, which meant that we couldn’t find a spot. So Craig decided to carry on to try someplace else. That turned out to be Century Mile, the actual racetrack, just outside of the city, near the international airport.
The route out to Century Mile requires taking a busy, high-speed highway. At one point, outside of the city, there was a stopped car in the right-hand lane, which we had to quickly avoid, as we were also in that lane. While passing that car, we noted that it had stopped to let a goose on the road cross. It wasn’t obvious why the goose was on the highway – it clearly was not going to be able to cross three or four lanes of high-speed traffic on foot. But nonetheless, there it was and there was the stopped car, considerately letting the goose amble along the pavement, but dangerously stopped in the right hand lane of a high-speed roadway (not the shoulder).
This had Craig in a bit of a lather, as it was admittedly a rather dangerous situation. It put him in mind of an occasion, many years earlier, when he had hit a bear on the highway outside of Banff. Same situation – someone had stopped to gawk at the bear, blocking his view. The bear then wandered into his lane and bam! Fortunately Craig wasn’t hurt and the car was only lightly damaged. However, you couldn’t say that about the bear.
At any rate, this experience had made quite the impression on both him and on the bear. So, when he sees someone stopping for a goose on a high-speed busy highway, he gets rather annoyed.
When I told the story to my wife, I remarked that I couldn’t understand why the goose was so nonchalant about strolling on the highway. Usually animals on the road are quick to move aside. She replied that "geese are not known for their intelligence". Quite right, it was the archetypal silly goose.
By the strangest of coincidences, my son and I saw another goose doing the same thing in the Safeway parking lot the next day, while shopping. The goose was being very oblivious there as well, though that was more understandable in a low-speed parking lot. In that case a car was also stopped for a goose, but it was a rather small car, so a collision with a goose might have harmed the car more than the goose.
Anyway, enough about geese, let’s get back to the horses. Actually, there were no horses running yet at Century Mile, so we would just be attending the racetrack simulcast section of the casino.
Even that was pretty crowded, so we ended up sitting in an adjacent room. It had the virtue of more comfortable seating than the horseracing section, as well as having the hockey game on several big screens. It was a really good game, in my opinion, so I have to confess that my interest was focussed far more on that, than on the horses.
The other problem was that Santa Anita was not running this day. It had become my go-to Thoroughbred track, so that was a disappointment.
I did get a program for Keeneland, in Kentucky, but it was already the 7th race by the time we arrived, so that wasn’t great.
I did work out my numbers for the remaining races, but I didn’t feel good about it, so I skipped all but one race. I lost that one, and I would have lost all the others as well, had I bet them.
There is something about eastern tracks (except Woodbine) that just doesn’t connect for me and my system. I recall Andrew Beyers saying that western tracks seemed to work better for him too, maybe because the surface is firmer in the dryer climates. I suppose that is as good an explanation as any.
As if Keeneland wasn’t bad enough, the Oilers lost the hockey game 1 to 0. So, it seemed like this place had bad karma today, so I persuaded Craig that we should go back to Budd’s and see how crowded it was now that the hockey game was over. So we did that.
This was much better, I thought, as we took up some prime seating at Budd’s. Mind you, it was rather sparsely attended by now, which was too bad, as I find people-watching to be quite interesting at the track or the OTB. However, horses come first.
So, we buckled down to pick the bucket-pullers at Woodbine/Mohawk, where I was fortunate enough to experience the ‘magic hour’.
Race 3 was just ready to go off when we sat down. Unfortunately I was a little late in going to the machines to bet, so I was shut out. That was too bad, as it paid off at 5 to 2.
I was a little peckish for beer and French fries by then, so I decided to bet conservatively on Race 4. This was in keeping with my rule to have no alcohol until I had won a race. I call this a beer-bet. So, cheating slightly, I bet show on the 7, which had several good indicators, based on my statistical analysis. It won easily, paying 3 to 1. Naturally, the show ticket paid considerably less (2.50). I guess a lot of people wanted to win a beer-bet.
Race 5 was one of those Woodbine harness-racing specials, where there is a huge odds drop from morning line to final odds. I knew it wouldn’t pay much, but for a laugh I bet it to win. It won, paying a whopping 2.70 to win.
For Race 6 I bet the #6, which had several good indicators. It won handily, going wire-to-wire (though that was not its usual running style). I finally got one that paid nicely, at 6.60 to win.
That was to be end of the magic hour, where every bet came in just as it should. Having said that, at least one more bet was to pay off, as were some exotics, though all paid very little.
Race 7 was a funny one. The #3 horse was bet down to extremely low odds, though it made no sense to me. Given that, I decided to bet on a long-shot to show. The favorite did win, for 2.70 and a long-shot did come in second at 70 to 1 odds (paying 28.50 to place), though it wasn’t my longshot, which finished down the track.
Race 8 was similar. The favorite was bet way down, as was the second favorite. Thus, I took a flyer on a long-shot show bet again. A long-shot did come in to show, though not the long-shot that I bet. At the same time, a Win-3 that Craig and I had bet came in, paying back its investment, with a little to spare.
Race 9 carried on the trend from Race 7 and 8. The favorite was bet way down (3 to 10), though the second favorite remained at 3 to 1 at race time. They finished in that order, with the favorite paying 2.50 to win and the second favorite paying 2.60 to place. I had thrown another long-shot show bet on the race, which came in third, but only paid 2.30 to show. It went off at 11 to 1, so it seemed incredible that it would pay so little to show. I guess it was the big favorite in the show pool. With non-win bets, you can never know, unless you are at the track and can watch the tote board. Which, of course, you can’t do at OTB.
Hilariously enough, Craig and I hit the Superfecta on the 9th race. That requires picking the first four finishers, in the right order. Even with two favorites in Win and Place, you would think it would pay off well, since the other two horses had high odds. But it was not to be, paying off only 20 dollars on each 1 dollar bet. After all was said and done, it paid off the investment with a small profit.
That was it for the betting, at least for me. The 10th race was all long-shots, but none of them were pickable by my logic, so I skipped it.
That was it for this episode. In summary, it was a slightly profitable day, though with winning four out of seven bets, one might have expected more. To be fair, some of those were show bets and those paid off surprisingly poorly. I lost my one thoroughbred bet and won 4 out of 6 harness bets.
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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’s an account of some road trips in south-western Alberta:
A Selection of Back-Road Trips Around Southwest Alberta
There are two main aspects to a road trip: the journey and the destination. Sometimes the trip is all about the journey, sometimes it’s all about the destination. Usually it is a little of both.
This collection of back-roads journeys feature a little bit of both of these aspects. Some accounts are more about the ‘journey’, such as a road trip on scenic Highway 22. Others are more about the ‘destination’, such as the show-jumping at Spruce Meadows. I hope you will enjoy reading some of these accounts and maybe give them a spin for yourself.
Southwest 1 – A Road Trip on Scenic Highway 22
Southwest 2 – The Equestrian Competitions at Spruce Meadows (Calgary)
Southwest 3 – The Bar U Ranch, south of Long View
Southwest 4 – Kananaskis Country
Southwest 5 – Blackfoot Crossing
Southwest 6 – Back-roads, from the Prairies to the Foothills: Brazeau Dam Trip
Southwest 7 – A Back-roads Trip to Hinton and the Forestry Trunk Roads
The reader may wonder “what about the Ice-fields Parkway?” or “where is a visit to Banff?” I would answer, that these famous destinations are covered very nicely by other books. This account is meant to focus on some less travelled areas, thus the “back-roads” descriptor.
I should note that the other three quadrants of Alberta also have a lot of interesting back-roads journeys, but those are material for some other books which will be published in due time.
Amazon U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon U.K: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0DCMJP47G
Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0DCMJP47G
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