Seabiscuit is not for eating

There is nothing like learning about betting on the ponies at the top.

I was introduced to betting on race horses at Santa Anita Park, one of the premium race parks in America. 

I was in Los Angeles covering the Rose Bowl for my paper, the Idaho Statesman in Boise.

The paper had a liberal policy for sending reporters out to cover major stories. It was the game between UW and Wisconsin, which the Huskies won, 44-8.

My boss JimBrown had a habit of going to LA for a month or two each year. I later learned to bet on the horses at Santa Anita race track.

The lady at the Statesman who made travel arrangements for reporters had set my wife and I up in a nice place.

When Brown checked our hotel location, he decided for an upgrade to the Hollywood Hotel, a small but luxurious hotel, right off Hollywood and Vine.

One day he called and asked if we had anything planned, and when I said no, he said his driver would be at our hotel to pick us up and we would be headed to Santa Anita with him.

I had never been to a horse racetrack, so I was looking forward to the outing.

I had been told that Brown liked horse racing. We got to sit in special seats right against the rails, no one standing in front of us.

The gardens at Santa Anita are beautiful, and a full-size bronze statue of Seabiscuit was a popular stopping place. While Seabiscuit never was a Triple Crown winner, he was still a very well known and popular racehorse.

Brown had a copy of the Racing News, a tabloid newspaper that gave bettors information on the horses racing that day.

It gave the times that the horses had at similar distances and whom they had ran against. Brown didn’t bet on every race, but was very selective. I laid a few bets, the $2 kind, but don’t remember if I won anything.

That was my introduction to horse racing.

A few years later, while living in Bothel,l I went to the races at Longacres.

Every year the track had a special race day for the newspaper industry. We got in free, but they cleaned up on newspaper bettors who didn’t know that horses had more than just four legs.

I have never figured out how anyone could measure the inner desire of a racehorse.

So I lost a few $2 bets.

Much later, I went to Longacres when Seattle Slew was to make an appearance. The Triple Crown winner would not race, just make an appearance.

The famous horse would appear two days in a row, led around the paddock by the owners.

Seattle Slew was a beautiful horse, but I wouldn’t say any  different than any other horse. The owners and their bankers would say otherwise.

Every year I went to Longacres for the special newspaper day, but still didn’t know a darkhorse from a champion.

Later, again, when I moved to the coulee, I went to the Playfair track in Spokane with my oldest brother, Richard.

He invited me to go with him. I lost my usual $2 bets. He lost much more because he thought he knew horses.

I wasn’t fooled; he knew less than I did. At least I lost $2 bets; his losses were much higher.

I still don’t understand betting on the horses.