How I got hooked on the ponies...

[Randall Pink]

Obviously, here at Fruity, there isn't a huge contingent of pony lovers, so this is perhaps most my fellow thoroughbred punter, J...  

I'm from "The States" and while in sophomore year of university, I agreed to go visit my gf's parents in the Philadelphia area during a break (lovely folks).  They were (probably still are) a bit well to do from a financial perspective and their Italian roots really shown through in their Sunday dinners (still 2nd guessing my choice to break up with her simply because I miss those Sunday dinners) and their love of gambling.

So on Saturday afternoon, they take me for my virgin trip to the racetrack.  I'm a very poor boy mind you.  I have scraped together $20 for this day, most of which I plan to wholeheartedly spend on $7beers (expecting to borrow a fiver from my gf for the third beverage).  Well, i get a program and start to read and in the very first race, I become intrigued in a horse named (of all things) "Sax and Violins".  I'm a literate bloke, so decided that the owners of that horse deserved my $2 (min bet) for the sheer genius of their literacy.  In the program, the morning line was 50-1 (with no other horse really less than 20-1, if memory serves).  I placed my bet at the window, bought my first beer and was working out how I much $ I can potentially "borrow" from my gf during the day as I was now down 10% on my budget.

The gate opens on the race and my gf's father points me to the board stating how crazy it is to see a horse with odds 100-1.  That was the #1 horse, which happened to be my ride or die.  Long story short, Sax and Violins came storming down the lane to close like Zenyatta that day and clip them all for a win.  I cashed for about $225 (on my $2bet) and the rest is history.  

 

Benny