I’m so excited I just had to post this somewhere. I’ll be seeing my first live horse races tomorrow at Colonial Downs in Richmond, VA. There are nine races on the card, with 7 claiming races, 1 allowance, and 1 stakes sprint. And because I’m completely bored, here are some of my favorite entries:
Hezmycat (who ironically enough has similar lines to my FF yearling, Mountain Sunrise…i.e. Mountain Cat and Storm Cat)
Royal Assembly
Get to Steppin’
Terrorizer
Born a Legend
Five Speed
Another Hero
Letinerip
Celestial Quest
Celtic Revenge
She Loves Me Now
Ribbons of Hope
Frisky Thunder
Bagger Vance
Rhyme or Reason
…and my absolute favorite (because I’m a C.S. Lewis fangirl at heart), Tashbaan, who’s at 10-1 in a $9k claimer.
It is so much fun and so thrilling. Make sure you watch them in the saddling paddock. You can tell alot about a horse and trainer by watching them in there.
Have fun and take pics if you can.
Our own local meet starts on saturday and runs till July 6th. Yeah!! Can’t wait till 12:30pm Post Time.
Races here won’t start up 'til the end of September, boo. Makes for a long summer of waiting!
I went for the first time last fall and had a BLAST…and won money! It was fun going on weekdays, though, because the stands were relatively empty - we walked back & forth between the saddling paddock and the finish line for each race. I’d highly suggest doing so if you can - that way you can see them up close before the race AND in full stride. You’re going to get addicted!
Whoo, back and completely sunburned. Plus I caught the betting bug. Eck.
Anyway, the races were good. There was only one mishap…the winning jockey angled his horse in and caused another horse to check and subsequently lose his jockey. The winner was eventually disqualified. Otherwise everything went off without a hitch. There were a couple of upsets and several photo finishes.
Between myself, the hubby, and my mom and step-dad, we managed to win $40 or so on a couple of $2 win bets. I haven’t yet mastered the tri- and superfectas, so the two we got didn’t earn us anything.
I got some pictures, which are viewable here.. Please excuse the mediocre quality…I’m still learning how to properly use my digital camera.
My mom got totally sunburned this weekend paddocking horses. She had fun and is hurtin pretty good right now though.
We had highs and lows.
Lost a really nice future stallion on Saturday. Jehosaphat(Jeo, pronounced Ge O) was owned by some good friends and he will be greatly missed. He was a son of Cee’s Tizzy(Tiznow’s sire). We all cried on saturday. Mom was planning on breeding to him when he retired.
On Sunday, mom paddocked Kristie Lee Cook’s (American Idol finalist) Coly Trail. He was such a good boy. He looked awesome and just loved having the crowd around him. He ran awesome after being off for over a yr. He was leading and finished 2nd by less than a length. Look out in his next race. Kristie was at Hollywood Park presenting the trophy for the Affirmed Handicap Race. She was really bummed she couldn’t watch her horse but called every 5 mins to check on him. We took lots of pics for her. She is going to try and make his next race.
Shannon had her first race horse run. Her dad bought him a couple of weeks ago. He ran on the lead the whole way and just got beat at the wire for 3rd. Shannon was a wreck before and during the race.
Off to a friend’s for the day of playing in the pool.
On the Tri’s and Superfecta’s, you can “box” them. You pick 3 horses and by “boxing” them, they can come in in any order and you will win. You can do a $1 Trifecta Box and get half of what the Trifecta pays out. I like playing that as it is only $6 instead of $12. Just tell them you want a $1 Trifecta Box with #'s 3,9 &12.
Checkout for any Handicapping sessions/clinics they do. They are usually on the weekends an hr or so before the 1st race. Call or checkout the track’s website. They will help in any way they can as they want you to spend $$$$$. They will give good picks for that days races.
You don’t have to be a serious bettor to learn how play and have a better idea how to “read” things and hopefully make a little $$ while having fun.
