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#1
11-12-2007, 10:17 PM
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It was always all about the horses, not gambling. I'd still be as involved in horse racing if there was no gambling (but then, there would be no horse racing, would there)
But I agree, it's a fascinating, challenging, heavily mathematical puzzle, solvable by knowing the horse, applying critical reasoning and analysis. Very un-random is a good description. I think people that only have an interest in the sport for the gambling, and having no interest in the fascination of the horse as a living athletic creature, are missing out on something terribly satisfying. And I don't think handicapping alone off a DRF, with no knowledge of the horse as an animal, suffices for best possible success for most. For fun, try going to the paddock, and spending a day handicapping horses off how they look and act and walk, with no knowledge of odds or PPs.
__________________
"Have the clean racing people run any ads explaining that giving a horse a Starbucks and a chocolate poppyseed muffin for breakfast would likely result in a ten year suspension for the trainer?" - Dr. Andrew Roberts 
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#2
11-12-2007, 10:25 PM
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Churchill Downs. I was 10 years old and it was my first visit to a racetrack. I remember watching an old man yell for his horse and when he didn't win he said, "God damnit, Brumfield!! Horrible ride, you cost me the exacta, you sumbitch!!" I was hooked.
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#3
11-12-2007, 10:26 PM
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His name was Smarty Jones.....
 He got me interested and the 2004 Hollywood Derby, first race i ever went to, made me an addict.
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#5
11-12-2007, 10:46 PM
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Three years ago a friend and I were looking for something to do on a Saturday afternoon and we saw that they were running at Bay Meadows... $20 worth of $2 win bets and standing at the rail feeling the horses thunder by us hooked me for life. I've been at my new job for two months now and work 70+ hours a week yet everyone at work knows me well enough (or at least knows my obsession) to ask "how did you do at the track on your day off? Who do you like this weekend?"
The horse that truly hooked me was a $4K claimer named Proud Patrolman, his heart and desire to run both inspired and awed me. He's a nine year old gelding who just won his 16th career race this past Saturday (78% ITM for his career) and I absolutely love to watch him run... how can you not fall in love with this sport when you love the athletes so much?
__________________
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. - Friedrich Nietzsche on Handicapping
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#6
11-12-2007, 10:49 PM
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Quote:
For me, my parents have always been racing fans and I went along with them a few times and was instantly hooked. I love the sound of the thundering hooves, the jockeys' silks sparkling in the sun and the determination of the horses in a great stretch duel, to name just a few things about racing that I love. And now my long-term interest is really paying off, I'm starting to see horses whose sires and dams I remember seeing race. Which is really awesome.
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#7
11-12-2007, 10:57 PM
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First race I remember seeing as a kid was the Wood Memorial... a big chestnut horse named Easy Goer won it and I've been hooked ever since. I never have been into the gambling aspect of it in a huge way, but I'll admit that figuring out how to read the form a few years ago was 'interesting.' I miss picking horses based on their names and looks.
__________________
http://www.facebook.com/cajungator26
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#8
11-12-2007, 11:03 PM
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Quote:
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#9
11-12-2007, 11:22 PM
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What a great thread. Been fun reading a lot of these postings. For me it was Seattle Slew that forever changed my life. Made me persue my childhood dream of working and riding racehorses. He will always have a special place in my heart. As far as the gambling part of it goes, I did'nt really understand how to wager or really care to until I was out working at Santa Anita in 1989. Have always been pretty much a $2.00 better and always love telling anyone that cares about how I hit the trifecta in the Derby that Chrismatic won. Paid $6500 for a $1.00 bet. I remember jumping up and down like a complete idiot
 Go baby Go!!!!
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#10
11-12-2007, 11:35 PM
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It's the best form of gambling(they all do this though) to take your mind to another place.Sports do this well.Gambling does it better.Horseracing does it D BEST.I'm not saying everyone does it to escape reality,but I think it is uniquely good at that.
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#11
11-13-2007, 12:04 AM
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My mother trained racehorses before I was born, so I grew up on the shed row so to speak. Shoot I was betting before I was in kindergarden. One of my earliest betting memories is of me throwing a fall down, kick my feet, flail around fit till my dad bet a horse named Scooby Doo,,,,yes Scooby Doo. Who just happen to win and according to my dad years later paid almost $100 to win!! And I almost had an above mentioned fit when Giamiaco beat Closing Arguement in the Derby and made me miss my tri/super. I only had him in the 2nd/3rd/4th spots....freaking nag.
__________________
Me and PP at Lanes End
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#12
11-13-2007, 01:48 AM
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Quote:
__________________
"Have the clean racing people run any ads explaining that giving a horse a Starbucks and a chocolate poppyseed muffin for breakfast would likely result in a ten year suspension for the trainer?" - Dr. Andrew Roberts
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#13
11-13-2007, 06:05 AM
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I've been into racing for as long as i remember. I grew up on a stud farm just outside Newmarket. I was taken racing by my parents as a one year old. The first meeting i actually remember though was Salisbury when i was about 5 or 6.
My father has been working with racehorses in one way or another for my entire life, and my mother has been working in the betting industry since i was 7. Although, as a kid, i hated the sport. My father used to shout at the TV and i just used to scream back at him or turn the TV off. I dreaded Saturdays because i knew the racing would be on all afternoon. Now, it's completely different, racing is on almost every hour on a Saturday.
__________________
Avatar ~ Nicky Whelan  and now we murderers because we kill time
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#14
11-13-2007, 10:27 AM
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Just kidding, but that is my old mans philosophy, The first race I saw was on tv in the 1981 derby when Pleasant Colony won. I was 9. That winter my father took me to Aqueduct, I thought that place was great. But my father only took me to the track a handfull of times. I really didn't fall in love with it until much later in life. My friends and I used to go to Atlantic City every weekend. After a while I want an alternitive to blackjack and craps. That's when I found the track, but then it was just about gambling. Eventually it turned into a love of the sport. Now I am trying to share my love of the sport with my 4 year old (pictured in the left hand corner) He has been to Monmouth and Freehold (which he calls the hurtin track) at least 20 times. He watches it on TV with me and we even play Saratoga with his Lego blocks. That's where I bulid a paddock and a starting gate out of legos and he puts his horses in and they race. We even bought him this electronic track for Christmas that comes with 4 horses and jockeys, it looks so cool. I can't wait for the day to come where both of my boys are old enough to go to Saratoga.
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