For many, horse racing as intoxicating as team sports

Sports, both in this country and around the world, are huge, not only as big business, but also as something the common man or woman can identify with and enjoy. Why are people so attuned to sports? Why do so many of us get so wrapped up in them?

Whether it’s through participating, gambling, playing fantasy or just sitting on the couch or at a bar watching, the thrill of the competition is something that most people love. The emotional bond with our favorite teams, our favorite players, our favorite drivers and golfers and goalies, pervades life in our society today. As young participants, the excitement brought by playing sports gave many of us our first real high in life. The thrill of that first goal, or basket, or base hit can bring about a rush that not only stays with us, but often propels us to continue seeking more of that feeling.

Of course, as we age, we participate less and spectate more. Often the emotions we incurred as a player are resurrected by watching others do things we once did, or tried to do. This connection can be very strong; just examine the number of people who attend sporting events at any level and you will find it to be true. There may be only 22 players on the football field at a time, or only 10 players on the basketball court, but thousands of people are watching them in person, and often millions more on TV.

Once our peak physical capabilities are behind us, however, those moments tend to become somewhat harder to find. The question to ponder, then, is which of those spectators get to have those special moments on a regular or semi-regular basis once their playing days are over? Parents yell and shout at their child’s games maybe once or twice a week, whether at the rink, the field, or in the gym. You might be lucky enough to live in a place with a casual adult league or two, and satisfy the urge for competition and victory that way, but such leagues seem to be fading nowadays. Most fans get their excitement from their team’s victory, but that doesn’t happen every game, or every week, and less so if you’re a fan of, say, the Browns or the Sabres, bless them.

What if the excitement of competing and, potentially, winning, is available every day, and happens every 15 minutes or so? What if that spectator, after a bit of research and with a little luck, can profit monetarily from the experience? If you count yourself as someone who still chases that thrill of competition, handicapping thoroughbred race horses can be a very viable way of doing it. You can see several races a day personally at the track – most tracks run a nine- or ten-race card on active days – or you can see dozens of them daily at simulcasting facilities around the country.

Go to any of these venues and you will see patrons jumping, screaming and yelling for the horse of their choice as the field comes pounding down the stretch, or sitting quietly in the time between races reading the Racing Form or the track program to determine their picks and wagers for the next race. This downtime is, of course, not quite as evident in a simulcast facility, where one race tends to follow another almost immediately, but then again, one of the secrets of successful gambling is knowing when not to bet. Some successful horseplayers will go to the track and only play a single race on the card.

Since you can also bet on these races using your own system or knowledge, it gives you even more control over your enthusiasm. Whether you bet a little or a lot, the thrill is the same. You might just get a random urge to put a buck down on the 50-1 shot because you like his name, or because even 50-1 shots deserve a little love sometimes. The horses are beautiful creatures – if you go early and spring for a clubhouse ticket, which is usually only a dollar or two more than general admission, you can, if you like, wander down to the paddocks, talk to the grooms, and look at the horses up close – and it is certainly easy and natural to want your selection to do well. Making the right choice is fun. Watching your horse do well is even more rewarding, especially since the variables involved in each race – track conditions, jockey skill, condition and attitude of horse, and strength of the field, to name a few – are such that any victory involving calculations and deductions of some sort unless you very literally bet blindly on a particular horse (like our friend the 50-1 shot up there.)

This isn’t to suggest that you necessarily have to bet if you go to the track, although you’re probably going to want to play at least a race or two. Most tracks now offer amenities like slots or simulcasting themselves, and some of them – Belmont Park, Santa Anita, Churchill Downs and Saratoga, to name a few – are beautiful enough that, if the weather’s nice, you can get a lot of enjoyment out of just sitting in the stands with a drink and looking out over the infield. But betting on the races, and winning a bit of money, can only enhance the experience. Most tracks now offer betting options as low as $0.10 or $0.50, and there’s no real need to concern yourself with exotic bets like wheels, pick-sixes or exactas, at least not right away. One can have a lot of fun for a small amount of money, and the chance of hitting it big is always in the offing. Besides, there are few things that can make you feel as grittily throwback and Runyonesque as thinking, “Hey, I think I’ll go to the track today.”

Most people who play Powerball and the other big state and national lottery jackpots know their chance of winning is small. Yet they still put up their money and watch those ping pong balls on evening drawings. This spectating, while exciting in its way, does not compare to the thrill that can be generated by watching beautiful and extraordinary thoroughbreds display their heart and courage in a race, and of course your odds of making money are certainly better than those offered by the lottery. Money matters to most fans, but for many the thrill of the race and the beauty of the horses are also important elements of the racing experience. Simply trying to touch, once again, that feeling of competition, and the thrill of victory, can be intoxicating. Thousands of race fans experience it ten times or more every day they play the horses. Having the opportunity to do it every 15 minutes sets racing enthusiasts apart from others who watch sports. So, as you sit at the track watching the field hurtle down the stretch, or watch a race on television or online, and that tingle of excitement starts to bubble up inside you, get inside the feeling and let it cascade over you. You will realize that horse racing, when it’s good, is much more than just another sport: it is a connection to a time in your life when the excitement of competition and the potential for victory first winnowed itself into your soul.

And who knows? That 50-1 shot might just come in today.