I could never come up with the name of the horse but I can clearly remember the circumstances.
I was three years old
. This was at Rosecroft. My parents were from NY and moved to MD. They were big into harness racing. They were close friends with a couple of professional gamblers from NY who used to come down and visit us a lot
. (something was going on there but I'll never know)
So my mom started teaching me to read. She used the program from Rosecroft and I would practice with the names of the horses because they were written in big, bold letters. Good thinking on Mom's part
My first bet was my mom or dad taking me up to the win window to get my cardboard, yellow win ticket with the horse's number and other such data printed in ink. This was 1959 (thus trackrat59-my first year at the track). I remember that I got to tell the teller the number of the horse. Back then you didn't have to say the name of the bet because each window was for a specific type of bet. The teller, no matter which one, would always say with a smile, "she's too young to bet" while punching my ticket.