Wuthering Hyders

At the Races


The kids spent the night at my mom's last night so Heath and I went out with Will and Betsy. We met up for dinner at a new restaurant called "Torroco". The atmosphere was nice and the food (Italian) was good. The Sinatra playing in the background was enjoyable, but the more "authentic" selections were a bit on the annoying side. We met up at eight o'clock and the place was virtually deserted considering it was Saturday night. I can only guess that they are still working on building their clientele base. Whatever the case, I actually enjoyed the lack of other patrons.

After dinner, we decided to meet a couple of Will and Betsy's friends at the local racetrack. (Don't disown me mom.) I'd never actually watched a horse race live before and neither had Heath. Heath decided we should place bets on a horse. While he was trying to get the inside scoop from the man taking our bets, I chose the dark bay (oh, so handsome) horse in the blue silks. A natural choice as blue is my favorite color. I didn't even read his name. I told Heath to bet on him, but he decided to go with another horse and bought me my own ticket, instead. Telling the man behind the counter, "My wife says...". When they asked me if I wanted to place the bet for him to win, I said "Sure. Why not?" and the guy behind the counter looked at me like I was a little nuts. I guess I hadn't looked at the horse's odds when I made my choice. He was dead last in the odds. Everyone else in our group placed their bets. Will's friend, Pat, also placed a bet on my horse. Probably just because he was the longshot. To each his own.

I decided it would be more fun to watch the race from as close as possible being as it was my first one and all. We all headed outside and I found a place at the fence right beside the finish line. I told Heath I wanted to be close enough to feel the dirt in my face. The horses came to post (or whatever the technical term is) and everyone was in the gate. The bell rang and the gates flew open. My horse stumbled on the way out, but kept it together. He was in third when he came past us the first time. He held back a couple of lengths behind the leaders and I suspected he was just biding his time. Sure enough, as the came around the second to last turn, he closed the gap. As they came around the final turn, he made his move and took the lead. He just kept gaining ground and won by over three lengths at odds of thirty-eight to one.

Pat and I celebrated and Heath couldn't believe my luck. I say it was faith in my horse. Wayzata Bay is his name, by the way. I insisted on staying to watch him brought into the Winner's Circle. I had, for once, forgotten my camera, so the only pictures I could get of him were on my cell phone. Not good enough to share, but at least I have one. All the excitement made me shaky, but it was fun. We went to collect our winnings and I sweet talked the guy behind the counter into letting me keep my ticket after he marked it as paid. Heath tried to get me to place another bet, but as I don't feel elated very often, I declined. I wanted to end on a good note. I felt it couldn't get any better than that.

So, thank you, Wayzata Bay, for making my first race a memorable one. You've been trying to win the race for three years and you finally did it. Congratulations! Guess we both had a great night!