It’s a proud moment for a father when your adult son announces that he’s visited 23 racetracks in his lifetime. It’s an even prouder moment when you go through his list and are able to add five more to his total.
I fell in love with horse racing when I was introduced to it in my teens, primarily because every race offers a new puzzle to solve. The past performances provide a plethora of data, but that’s what the horses did previously; the trick has always been figuring out how that translates to the present. I’ve never bet a lot, nor won a lot, but I’ve certainly enjoyed the challenge horse racing provides.
My son started tagging along when he was quite young, although early on he wasn’t terribly interested in racing. I can remember that my one and only visit to now-closed Hollywood Park was spent primarily at the playground at the head of the stretch, not the best vantage point to watch the races and seemingly miles away from the closest mutuel window.
As he got older, and I’m talking eight or nine years old, he caught the bug too, learning to read the Daily Racing Form to figure out which horse would be the recipient of his $2 show bet. Living just outside of Vancouver, Hastings Park became a weekend staple, but we also incorporated horse racing into family vacations.
When he was 10 years old, I remember making the trek to Edmonton for Northlands Park’s signature race, the Canadian Derby. We attended the workout show the day prior and showed up early on race day for the pancake breakfast, only to find he wasn’t welcome as it was being held in the lounge. We did manage to get our free T-shirts, although the men’s large was a touch big on him, and had our pancakes at a nearby McDonald’s before returning for the race card.
Over the years, our travels have taken us to some big-time tracks like Santa Anita and Del Mar in California, Woodbine in Toronto and Keenland in Kentucky as well as some decidedly smaller venues like the Crooked River Roundup in Prineville, Oregon and the Solano County Fair in Vallejo, California. We’ll go wherever racing takes us.
We’re always looking to add new tracks to the list and have at least three, including the famed Churchill Downs, on our radar this year, but this love affair with racing isn’t just a hobby anymore, at least not for my son.
You see, all that exposure to horse racing over his formative years led him to a career in the industry, one that he forged all by himself and which resulted in a position in racetrack management at a young age.
So, the moral of the story is that introducing your kid to horse racing isn’t going to turn him into some sort of degenerate gambler. Instead, it allowed him to pursue a passion as a career, something many people never get to experience. He’s done very well for himself, which makes me proud.
Well, that and the 28 tracks and counting.
