My betting buddy and I live in Dutchess county about an hour and ten minutes from Yonkers. We are both in our sixties and retired so it is a weekly night out. We play half an hour of slots and then hit the track. We are dollar exacta, dollar DD's and dollar triple players. We play around twenty dollars a race. We like the thrill when we win and realize in the long run we will lose. It is a night out.
My friend takes losing a little too hard and to it it seems every race he or I do not hit, is fixed-ok not every race he loses but enough to be a tad annoying. There was however a race that was a "series" in it's third leg where the final was just about decided and a 50 to 1 shot who was last in the backstretch rolls up the rail to win. I like Bartlett a lot but he had live cover and he was a favorite and choose not to get off the rail. At least one driver did not go to the whip in the stretch (forgot who I watched in replay just to be sure) Anyway there was a stench in the air and for once I was calling "fix" I am of the mindset of "so what" the program shows me who ought to be favorite and they usually are but a dollar better (except win/place bets) needs a longshot to make money to be first or second for our type exactas/triples so I usually play the trainer/driver and post position and forget quarter times etc as they can vary for a multitude of reasons.
Not sure where I'm going here but having seen 30 thousand fans in the past it saddens me to see the way things are now. I enjoy the newer crop of drivers like Bartlett Gingras, Stratton, Bonjoirno etc and love the sights and sounds and thrills of racing. The physical plant stinks with broken picnic benchs and the feeling that racing fans are an after thought add to the anger over the decline of my favorite track. I saw Niatross wing the Cane pace and still have the giveaway glass (1980) I remember the loud and profane fans and miss it a lot. Today haf of the few dozen fans are owners and the majority of the perhaps thousand in all fans are betting the flats (seems "bumperclot" wins every time.) Anyway, forgive the rample.
