An Evening at the Races

Novemeber 25, 2005
On Friday night, it was decided that we would go spend an evening at the races, the greyhound races that is. Neither Lynette nor I had ever been so why not give it a whirl.
I am not much of betting person. Mark likes to have a little fun with it, so every now and then he will place a pound bet on a dog. Well, race 3 came along and the fellows decided to head downstairs to get some food. Mark wanted to place a bet so he gave a pound to Hilary and told her to go and place a bet on Badger Bait (I don’t remember the actual name of the dog so Badger Bait will have to do for now) Hilary had never placed a bet on a dog before so she somehow conned me into going up there with her.

We reached the booth and Hilary said to the man, “I would like to place a bet on Badger Bait.”
“What number is Badger Bait?” the man asked.
“I am not sure,” Hilary replied.
Just glancing at the roster before we walked up, I said, “I believe it is # 3.”
The bet was placed and we walked back to the table. Looking at the program we were struck with horror realizing that I said the wrong number. Badger Bait was # 4. Not knowing what to do, the music started indicating that all bets were closed. The only thing that we could do now is either hope that # 3 wins and pray that # 4 loses.
They were off and # 4 was leading out of the gates. # 6 however was catching up fast and eventually passed dog # 4. By this time we realized that # 3 had no chance so all we could do now is hope that # 4 didn’t win. The race continued with the leader switching back and forth between # 4 and # 6. The suspense was agonizing. The dogs crossed the line, and both Hilary and I were sure #6 had won. Well, the dogs were so tight that they had to do a photo finish to find out the true winner. And the final result, number four won by a stinkin’ nose!
“I can’t believe that just happen!” was all we could think to say. And as those words passed our lips, all we could here was Mark’s approaching voice shouting, “I won! I won! Yes!”
Well the moment of truth came and we confessed the mix up. Knowing that it was my fault, I gave him a pound to replace the one that I lost for him. He was still rather upset by the series of events that I just told you. In the end he might not have won anything but he didn’t loose anything either. So the moral of the story is ….To avoid this from happening to you, refrain from gambling!