If boxing is the sweet science and bingo is the lucky lotto I think horse racing is somewhere in between and deserves a similarily cool name.
Perhaps the blind bet is a good moniker or maybe shot in the dark?
The Millarville Races have been a family tradition for more than a decade and each year I find it more interesting to see how people choose their horses at the betting line.
While you stand in line waiting to place your bet you have plenty of opportunity to scrutinize the program. Of course, you spend more time talking yourself out of the winning bet than you do studying the statistics.
This year I spent my time listening to others as they debated their selections. It was interesting to hear how they deciphered their options. People pick their horses by everything from the jockey’s nationality (“Always take the Latin jockey, they know what they are doing”), to the horse’s name (“Sid the Kid scored the winner for Canada he is a sure thing”) to the odds (“Never take the favourite, never take the longshot, pick something nicely in the middle”).
These were some of the pearls of wisdom I gleaned during my time waiting in line.
For me, I usually go on a hunch and I usually cuss out my hunch soon after when my horses gallops across the finish line several minutes behind the others.
However, there are those rare moments when my hunch miraculously pays off and my $5 bet makes me feel like a million bucks.
You see that is what makes Millarville so much fun, every victory is as sweet as a cold beer on a hot day and every loss means nothing more than a laugh and jab from your friends.
As for Sid the Kid, he came through again on Sunday and yes that beer tasted oh so sweet as I put a $20 windfall in my pocket.
