Why Twenty Dollars?

Race tracks are like Ikea.  You go there with the intention of a budget but all those exciting possibilities jump out at you and you rationalize spending next week's gas money on things you shouldn't.  Of course, race tracks and Ikea would disagree.

Why twenty bucks?  Because that's what I walked into Santa Anita Park with on October 3, 2009. I didn't have anymore than that to play with. It had been a bad year. Many of you had a similar bad year. I had left a long term job in 2008 to move up in my field and got laid off 6 months later in 2009. The only job I could find after that barely paid more than my unemployment benefits. (Who do I work for? Hint: The people who pay me make blockbuster movies that make hundreds of millions.) So twenty dollars was a lot of money.

I walked into the track's clubhouse with a plan. Even though I had grown up with horses, I am no handicapper. I couldn't pick a winner if you paid me. My earlier track outings had been limited to betting on gray horses or jockeys wearing pink. You can guess the results. This time I had a plan and a Daily Racing Form. I wouldn't bet on horses that hadn't won in the last three and I would only bet show bets. I bet all the races. I only bet two dollars each race.

I stuck to my plan and went home with my twenty, and seventy cents profit. That's the key to fun at the track: a plan. I was hooked.

Yes, it doesn't sound like a lot of fun, but you would be amazed at the psychological zing you get when you have even a dollar on a race. It's some sort of stake and it's yours. You are in the game. You see your horse charging down the stretch and all you can think is "hang on to third."

Yeah, when the horse wins by seven lengths you wish you had bet to win and bet this week's groceries, but I will guarantee the horse would've done what one horse did to me this weekend when I had a six dollar across the board bet on him because the horse was on a long winning streak. In the final few yards he failed. He went from the front of the pack to the back of the pack.  He went from first to dead last in the blink of an eye. When starting out never regret a show bet. You got your money back and at least ten cents on top of that. You've lived to bet another day.