When I saw MaTh's post I did think of your kids. I was going to post something but figured you'd get to it.

My mom took me to the races when I was 6 and I can still remember it some 46 years later.

You can still post Bigs as several have veered.

Spyder

The math skills alone that she is learning are extremely valuable. I consider my math skills to be very good, and I would say the track contributated to at least half of those skills.

what contribution did the track make to your drinking skills?

in high school I took the statistics and probability class, and really liked it.
little did I know at that time to what end I would apply what I learned.

on a side note: when I first started going to the track i kept running in to my high school calculus teacher.:eek:

very minimal actually. SIU contributated to that

Great story, Bigs. I don't think anything bad can come out of it either.

I never said spelling was a strength

i would like to make a contributation to hukd on fonix.

Kids nowadays are truly amazing. My 3 YO daughter loves to watch the races with me, and has since she was a baby. Early on whenever she heard Durkin's voice on the replay show she would stop whatever she was doing and come to watch with me. I have about 50 stories already, but I'll share just a few.

She already knows what number matches what color saddle cloth. Now, I'm a NYer (well NJ now, but I grew up going to the NYRA tracks) so I'm not even used to the colored saddle cloths yet, as they are still fairly new to the circuit. Call me old fashioned but I still like the black. Anyhow, the other night I flipped to TVG to watch a race from Hollywood and there was a Harness race on. My daughter says to me "Daddy, that's not right, the 8 is supposed to be pink". I laughed (and cried) for about 15 minutes. Fortunately, my wife loves horses too so she's not bothered by this stuff in the least.

One day last year, when she was 2, I was putting a new address into the GPS and she asks me "Daddy, are you making a bet?". That's not good.

Lastly, the horse we currently have shares in has been the number 9 the last 2 times she has raced, including a win 2 races back that seems to be sticking with my daughter. Now, everytime she sees the number 9 on the track she says "Daddy, is that Sweetie?".

We brought her to Belmont at 2 months and Saratoga for 10 days at 3 months. She looks forward to the 2 weeks we spend up there every year and recognized Durkin's voice right away. Now whenever the horses go into the gate she'll say "and they're off".

Enjoy them and the amazing gift that they are.

SO Funny!!