Race Track Diary, Entry Number
Thirty-One
31 – Billy Budd’s (May 9, 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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31 – Billy Budd’s (May 9, 2026)
It was another pleasant Saturday afternoon, so as usual people were out and about.
Bud’s was fairly busy in the horse-racing section, not as much in the rest of the pub. The guy who looks like one of my old U of A colleagues was there, as was the lady who reminds me of one of my sisters-in-law. There were a few other faces that looked familiar to me. I suppose that my brother and I are looking familiar to some of those people as well.
It wasn’t long before the races at Santa Anita started.
In race #1, I had an obvious pick, the #4 horse, which had vastly superior numbers to the rest of the field. But, I played it safe and went for a place ticket. It did come in second, paying a bit less than even odds to do so. There was an inquiry, but everything stayed the same.
I didn’t get to play with track’s money for long, as my win bet horse (#2) in the second race came in third.
Race #3 was a Maiden Special Weight on the turf. I skipped that race, as not many of the horses had any past performance record to go on. Plus, I don’t have much confidence with races on the turf.
In Race #4, I was shut out, so no bet. It seemed like I was there in time, but the machine said no, and you can’t argue with a pitiless machine. I was planning to bet show on the #6 horse; it actually won the race for a cool $41 on a $2 bet. However, the show pool was weird, so it only paid a bit over even money for that. It was all hypothetical, anyway, since I was shut out.
For Race #5, I wasn’t shut out, but it would have been nice if that had happened, as my #3 horse came in fifth. The #4 horse ran away with the race, looking awesome as she did so. And she had a great name: Midnight Cowgirl.
I heard some other wag saying "I had the three and he’s dead fuckin’ last!". I was tempted to say "Buck up, old chum, the horse actually came in fifth." However, I suspected that would not go down well, so I withheld my comment.
As it happened, the fellow who cussed out the horse won a race shortly thereafter. That led him to actually have a smile on his face, which didn’t seem likely to be a frequent occurrence. He even hummed happily, while cashing his ticket.
In Race 6, the #5 horse, that had the best numbers by my reckoning, won, paying $4.40. But I went fishing for a better price and bet the 4 horse to show, which it did. My notebook says "Bet 4 to show, it led, died in the stretch and 5 ran away with it." So, here I was while writing up this blog, thinking that I had lost the bet, but it turned out that I had won, but hadn’t cashed the ticket. It only paid $2.20 to show, but that was better than losing the bet entirely. In the words of Mary Kondo, it gave me a spark of joy. I guess that’s why I never threw the ticket out (she said "throw everything out that doesn’t give you a spark of joy").
In the 7th race, I got shut out again, which is just as well, as my favoured horse (#1) came in fifth. But, no bet, no loss.
In the 8th, I didn’t get shut out and did bet the #1. It managed to come in next to last. It was was called "Voldemort", and things with that name never win, at least according to the Harry Potter books. So much for literature’s lessons, it was another loss.
I skipped the 9th Race, as there were a lot of horses in that race and I was too lazy to bother working out all those numbers. Plus, it was the infamous "downhill at the start, on the turf" race, which I don’t have a good feel for.
So, in summary, 5 bets, with 2 wins and 3 losses. Not too bad, but the bets didn’t pay much, so a small loss for the day.
By that time, the bucket-pullers at Woodbine/Mohawk were running, so we switched our attention accordingly.
We missed the first race, while betting on Santa Anita.
In Race 2, I bet the #5 horse, which promptly came in last place.
In Race 3, I did the same, with exactly the same result!
I skipped the fourth, as Craig and I were busy playing some of his exotics. For me, this is just throwing darts for fun, so I don’t score them as "handicapping" in these diary entries. However, I will note it in passing sometimes.
For Race 5, I bet the old reliable #6 horse, which did indeed win. It had a fairly precipitous odds drop in the final few seconds before the race, so my payoff wasn’t quite as high as I had expected. However, I had stepped up my bet considerably, as I liked the horse for multiple reasons (post position, nice closing kick, excellent times, especially at WPS races). Added to that, her name was "Sugar Pie Honey", which is pretty hard to resist.
I skipped Race 6, as we were alive to a Win-3, so that was enough action for me.
Race #7 was something you rarely see.
The #1 horse, Beau Jangles, was favoured on the morning line at 1 to 10, which are amazingly short odds. And it did indeed go off at those odds. The rest of the field had odds in the 60 to 1 range or more, except for the #6 horse. When the race started, there was already 50,000 bet on the #1, with only about 250 bet on any of the other horses.
And the reason was clear, from the form. The horse was a monster, having won all twelve of its races as a 2 year old and earning $1.7 million in the process. Nobody else came close to that.
There was no place or show betting allowed on the race, just win (and some exotics). I put a token bet on the #6 horse, which did lead for quite a while, but when Beau Jangles decided to pass, it was ‘bye-bye’.
Apparently the horse will be running the next week as well, so that should be interesting.
After that, I skipped most of the rest of the card, except the 11th race where I made a token bet on the 6, which did nothing.
I had mentioned to my brother Craig that he was due to win some exotics. And he did win a couple or three Pick-3 bets (including one with Beau Jangles), but the prices weren’t much to talk about. Still, moral victories I suppose.
And that was that. At the buckets, I made 5 bets, winning 1, losing 4, though with a stepped-up bet on the win. So, only a small loss on the day.
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And here are a couple or three short books you might like.
On the Road with Bronco Billy
Sit back and go on a ten day trucking trip in a big rig, through western North America, from Alberta to Texas, and back again. Explore the countryside, learn some trucking lingo, and observe the shifting cultural norms across this great continent.
Amazon U.S.: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon U.K.: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Germany: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B00X2IRHSK
Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00X2IRHSK
=======================================================
What follows is an account of a ten day journey through western North America during a working trip, delivering lumber from Edmonton Alberta to Dallas Texas, and returning with oilfield equipment. The writer had the opportunity to accompany a friend who is a professional truck driver, which he eagerly accepted. He works as a statistician for the University of Alberta, and is therefore is generally confined to desk, chair, and computer. The chance to see the world from the cab of a truck, and be immersed in the truck driving culture was intriguing. In early May 1997 they hit the road.
Some time has
passed since this journal was written and many things have changed
since the late 1990’s. That renders the journey as not just a
geographical one, but also a historical account, which I think only
increases its interest.
We were fortunate to have an
eventful trip - a mechanical breakdown, a near miss from a tornado,
and a large-scale flood were among these events. But even without
these turns of fate, the drama of the landscape, the close-up view of
the trucking lifestyle, and the opportunity to observe the cultural
habits of a wide swath of western North America would have been
sufficient to fill up an interesting journal.
The
travelogue is about 20,000 words, about 60 to 90 minutes of reading,
at typical reading speeds.
==========================================
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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