Intro to horse racing

Horse Racing has been a passion of mine ever since I learned of its power when I lived in California. An old classmate of my dad's lived in Southern California so that on one vacation that my parents made when visiting me, my dad reconnected with this former friend of his youth.  That man whose name is Bob had survived the depression by playing quarter horses.  Thus, when my dad and he got together again in California, Bob took my parents and me to the Los Alamitos horse races.  It happened to be raining that day so that there was a track bias.  Bob bert $50 per horse but I had no idea what my dad did or how he did.  But that first time at Los Alamitos turned out to be a day when the inside horse won consistently.  Whether my dad or mom won any money I have no idea, but I know that I learned a lot from simply watching.  I did not know how to bet then so probably abstained from it.

Later, I was invited by a fellow teacher at the school where I taught to go to Santa Anita to see the races there, and that was my first introduction to Santa Anita Park. One of the fellow male teachers was well known for his interest in horse racing as he was an avid gambler of the horses.  I finally went by myself one day to the shopping center in Arcadia which is located right next to the racetrack and by chance walked through the stalls where I could hear the announcer shouting out the names of the horses as they raced down the tracks. Walking through there was foreign to me but I recall very well remembering some names and numbers so that later I learned that those had been winners that day. I thought what a peculiar oddity for that to happen.

Finally, I went to the racetrack again after my first initial invite from the fellow teacher who showed me around the track but did nothing to enlighten me on programs, racing forms, or horses in general. I was just still a sight seer.

Some of my neighbors were addicts to the game and I learned how they spent hours studying racing forms. I was too busy working to pay much attention but eventually something caught my attention so that I decided to take a closer look at this game where I was feeling as though I were being used somehow or other.

In those days, I was as skinny as a jockey and had been compared to jockeys when teaching.  In fact, also one of the students at our high school had been an apprentice jockey at Santa Anita.  But when I taught in Arizona, my high school principal had said that I had used my grades like a racing stick.  I never forgot that.

So because I eventually bought a car from Ford company called a Cougar, I took interest in a horse trained by Charlie Whittingham and ridden by famous jockey Willie Shoemaker because its name was Cougar II.  I ended up at the racetrack at Santa Anita to see this horse and became instantly addicted to the world of horses.

Those were the days, my friend, as the song says!

Breeders Cup had not been invented then.