We're off to the races!

Today we headed off to the racetrack at Hastings Park for Tetie's birthday. It included a buffet which was okay but the fun part was definitely deciding which horses to bet on, placing the bet and then rooting for your horse to win!

This was the first time I've ever watched and placed bets on horse racing and will definitely go back! It's so much fun! The first part was understanding some of the lingo and how to actually place a bet. There are a ton of different combinations or ways to place a bet, but the general basics for a beginner is to choose a horse you think will win (come first), or place (come first or second) or show (come 1st, 2nd or 3rd). The odds of your pay back will be less if you pick 'show' vs' win'. Anyway, tons of things to learn... but being the conservative I am, my first bet was, "Hastings Park (name of the racecourse), Race 1, $2 bet, show on #6". With beginners luck, my horse #6 won and I won myself $3.20! :) I know I know, small amounts but hey, a win is a win!

Another interesting part of the process is choosing which horses will win or place or show... looking at their past stats, their jockey's stats, their this, their that, it's complicated. My picks were just random and you just have to base it on luck (or no luck..tee hee). Picking the funky names didn't seem to work either, although quite a few of the Aldergrove horses did well ;)

Trav did pretty good... he won pretty big on this one combo called a Trifecta Box where he chose three horses who he thought would place in 1st, 2nd and 3rd (no specific order). A regular Trifecta means you select the first three horses to place in the exact order (higher paying if you get it right!), whereas a trifecta box allows you to get any combination in the top three. It was awesome to win it... but too risky for me... I'm a more 'horse x to show' kinda gal!

Anyways, super fun and would recommend it for a group event.

Oh and another fun thing to try out... Guitar Hero! But I'll post about that at another time... need some water, throat is hurting from screaming so much for my horse to win!