Day 17

I can't believe this awesome blog continues daily for 17 days so far. Awesome.

Now, I told you all yesterday that I had to hurry to do some awesomeness. Well, that awesomeness is today's awesomosity. If you followed me on Twitter, you would already know the story. My dad and brother and I played horse hookey.

Every Tuesday, Fairmount Park has races all afternoon. This Tuesday they had 8 races. Most were 6 furlongs (I have no idea how far that is, I only know that means they start on the other side of the track and finish in front of us). They did have 2 mile+ races, where they start and finish in front of us, now that was awesome. Hearing them jump out of the gate thingy (you can see I am a horse racing aficionado), and watching how fast they take off is quite spectacular.

This is the horses actually finishing. I had the horse that won to place, which got me $3.80

So, watching horses run is a lot of fun. What makes it more fun? Betting on them. And there are so many bets you can make. An Exacta, where you pick the top 2 finishers in order, a Trifecta, the top 3 in order, a Superfecta, the top 4 in order and so on. Then you can do something like an Exacta box, where you pick two or three or four horses to finish in the top 2. But you are really just placing more bets. I'll try to give you an example. You think that horses 1 and 2 will finish 1 and 2, but 3 also looks good. You may do an Exacta box with 1, 2, and 3 for $1 each. That is a $6 bet. You are actually betting they will finish 1-2, 1-3, 2-1, 2-3, 3-1, 3-2. Does that make sense? It didn't to me either, but you pick it up quickly.

How much would something like that pay off? An Exacta may pay off $20-$30 on a $1 bet. It all depends on how much people bet on what horses. There was something like $30,000 bet on the 6th race. Crazy.

You can also just bet that a horse will finish "in the money", which means 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. That would be a "show" bet. Or you can have a "place" bet, hoping they finish 1st or 2nd. Or obviously, the "win" bet.

So, enough about the horses and the betting. (By the way, I bet a total of $24 and won $10, so I was -$14 on the day, not too bad.) The other stuff. On the Tuesday special, it costs $1.50 to get in. Tip sheets are $2 (GET A TIP SHEET IF YOU GO, its well worth it) and programs are $2. Soda is 50 cents, hot dogs are 75 cents, beers, for those of you that drink, are $1.50. So, for about $25, you can have a great day at the races. If you win any of your bets, you just might come out ahead. Apparently, some guy won like $70,000 there a few weeks ago, but he hit a Superfecta, which is ridiculous.

So, we've got horses racing, money betting, cheap food, but what about the atmosphere you ask? All kinds of awesome. You have old guys, kids, families, and this guy:


Do I need to say anything else? Really. But in all seriousness, it is a great place for groups to go. You don't have to bet, you can just come to watch the horsies run. Way too much fun. They also race on Friday and Saturday nights, which I am guessing is a ball.

So, that's today's awesomosity, I hope you enjoyed it.

Last day for the poll, VOTE (for change) NOW!

Here is picture of me enjoying my parents hammock:

See you tomorrow!