Monday, August 10, 2009

Extreme Day at the Races

the crowd
Since our last trip to the horse races we had been looking forward to this day... Extreme Race Day! Where the races are taken over by ostriches and camels... or at least I thought it'd be taken over. I was a little disappointed to arrive and see horses out on the track!! It turns out it wasn't extreme race "DAY" but extreme race "intermission show". There was only one ostrich race and one camel race... but we had a fun time anyway (like we always manage to do!)

We planned to arrive a half hour early, since the first post was at 1:30... traffic was not pleasurable on the way there and we ended up arriving a little before 2:00. But I didn't capture any photos to share of the birdies flying around us or the mad man jumping out of his car trying to prevent people from butting ahead in the right merge lane... it did keep us entertained though.

It was a beautiful day, such a beautiful day we forgot the sunscreen at home... AND the hat for Kyle's head. But who could not have a good time on a day like this:
amazing sky

This second one might look a little muggy cuz I took it when we were sitting inside behind the glass, but still look at those gorgeous clouds!
sky view from inside

Unlike last time, it was pretty darn crowded, there were lots of kids, seeing how Sunday is 'family day' and it was also the once a year extreme race. We headed down to some secluded benches to get a few shots (this is when we realized we forgot the sunscreen - boy that sun is hot when there is no shade). Here are Yukon Passion (#4) and Vicarious Edition (#2) from the second race. Neither of them placed, but I happen to like this shot better than the one I got of the winners:
go horses

While waiting for the third race we went and visited some of the horses (in the SHADE!!), isn't she beautiful? I really wanted to put my nose up to her skin, I just love the smell of horses... but I thought people would think I was nuts so I decided a pet would be good enough.
isn't she lovely

After the third race was the Ostrich race!!!! Like I mentioned it was rather crowded and since there was only one ostrich race (which was only about a 100 yard race) everyone crammed in trying to see. So sorry that I didn't get good coverage, I was standing on a bench.
run ostrich run

There were no open bets on the two extreme races, but the announcer did encourage side bets, lol. We only cared about the ticket they handed out as we walked in. It was a piece of paper and if you held the winning ostrich number AND winning camel number you won something from Kwik Trip. There were a total of 5 ostriches running and since we had numbers 1, 2, and 4 on various tickets we had a good start. The line up was as follows:
1-Mind That Beak (red)
2-Roadrunner's Nightmare (white)
3-Imarealbird (blue)
4-Eggsacta (yellow)
5-Fiesty Feathers (yellow)

Notice in this last shot, a few in the end lost their jockey!
uh oh you lost a few
The winner was #1 - Mind That Beak!

Now like I mentioned before we don't really go for the betting purposes mainly just for entertainment... but like those scratch tickets you get in your stocking, it's just something fun to do once in a while. The first bet I placed was race 4, $2 Place on #4-Lumpsinmyoatmeal (I like to pick my horse for their name or location, hee hee). He ended up winning 2nd and I won $2.20.

Now if you've never been to the horse races (and I hadn't before last time) you might not understand the betting. The three easiest which is all I'm going to explain, is win, place, and show. So you pick a horse you want to cheer for and put money down. We just did the minimum which is $2, but some crazies could probably put down a lot more. Then you pick which category you want:

Win=you win if your horse gets first place
Place=you win if your horse gets first OR second place
Show=you win if your horse gets first, second OR third place

Now obviously depending on which you pick, depends on the amount you win. And the odds also play a role in it - depending on how many other people there are picking that same horse.

So the next race, since I had won back my money, I got to go again. I bet that $2 on place again for#5-Callmemrgeorge and Kyle put a $2 place bet on #6-Sheriff Hotdog. Kyle's horse ended up getting second and he won $7.20!! Sweet!

The next race we just made one combined $2 place bet on #5-Red Sandy. Now the reason we picked her was because she was from Springfield, MO!!!!! Yup you read that right, how could we NOT cheer for her? Her odds were 14-1, but still we had a good feeling about her.
the ticket

The race begins, no word of Red Sandy, but once it gets to the straight ending stretch we see her come out of nowhere... here she comes, here she comes in the yellow....
go number 5
(*sorry bout the bar, we were sitting inside behind the windows)

And 2nd she finishes!!!! YAH #5! At this point the people behind us are griping "where did that horse come from?" lol, we were thrilled. And because of her horrible odds, we won $11.00!! More than the winning horse would have won you! So we cashed out and called it a day for betting.

After the seventh race was the "camel clutch" once again, sorry for the bad pictures, but I didn't really have a good view spot, due to all the people.
1-Rock'n'Spit
2-How Now Brown Camel
3-Desert Storm
4-Camel Lot
number 4 Eggsacta

This time we were cheering for number 1, since we had that card in hand. And we felt pretty good since #1's record said he was the two-time champion in Canterbury's Camel Dash.
run camel run

Unlike the ostriches, all the jockey's remained intact with their camel. Don't their legs look so funny as they run?
funny runner

The winner was #2-How Now Brown Camel... so much for #1's winning streak. Maybe next year...

2 comments:

Daisy said...

sorry if my comment box was acting up... I think I fixed the settings back :-)

Rhiannon said...

Okay--it works now! Thanks! PS--I love the ticket picture...too cute!

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