A GRAND STAND APPROACH
Family Day at a theme park, family day at a baseball game, family day at the race track? What are we trying to do, teach the kids to bet on horses? That was the question I put in my head after my wife said she won tickets to Family Day at Arlington International Racecourse for June 1st. Certainly I couldn’t wait to go and see horse racing and win thousands of dollars. I dreamed of the big pay day and had enough money in my pocket, 80-dollars to assure the possibility of becoming rich beyond my wife’s dreams. But what of the kids, my sons, one not yet a teenager and the other looking for money to buy his first car and pay his auto insurance, no wait, that’s what I’ve said he must be able to do to drive. He’d just like to buy a gently used car and have me pay for his gasoline and car insurance. I was told the racecourse had things for kids to do. What would that be, face painting, arts and crafts? The Daily Racing Guide, bought inside the Clubhouse for a couple of dollars promoted the Sunday event, Pepsi Family Day presented by the Daily Herald. The guide says “All this plus pony rides, face painters and a petting zoo.” So I was right, face painting was offered to the kids. I should have won a bet, would have been one of the few on this day for me. The kids took their friend, another pre-teen, whom they thought would probably bring some of his own money they might borrow if he won a race or two. Why didn’t we go to Arlington the following weekend, I could have brought home a beach towel from the racetrack or the next day, Father’s Day and be treated to what they described as an exciting day of live thoroughbred racing. Maybe the kids would spot me 100-dollars. But on this Family Day at the Racetrack, my wife and I would do our best to make this an educational experience for the kids. I’d have to do my best to avoid being a messy better; no swearing at losing money, no waving around dollars won at the track, no making it look like I was hooked on gambling. This was a clean gambling image I’d project no matter how much I won or lost….and I won early and then lost, and lost, and lost….and my oldest son wondered whether I had exhausted all the money I’d won…. If not, he wanted to ‘borrow’ 10-dollars he could use to gamble. This was indeed a time of great lesson learning, similar I think to the sex education lecture or the driving sober lesson I’ve waited patiently to explain to him. We of course had things to do on this day; eat popcorn, hotdogs, ice cream and drink plenty of Pepsi, and put all the costs on our Visa card tab, a tab that grew larger than any possible track winnings except maybe for the 50-to 1 shot in the 10th race on Bubba Boy. I lost the bet though. By the end of the day 6:30pm, a full day at the track, we were tired, and nearly poor except for my sons’ friend, he won 50-dollars. We missed out on the jockeys goggles. They gave out their goggles for a lucky kid waiting for this tremendously thrilling present and did this at the end of every race. My sons weren’t lucky with the goggles or the races, though they did enjoy the escalator and brief conversations with the track tellers, particularly one guy that seemed to like the boys. Other tellers resembled the closest thing to death standing I had seen in a while. They just weren’t excited, though I can imagine how one might be brain dead taking those 2-dollar bets over and over for hour after hour. Our experience on Family Day at the Racecourse was a sure bet, you know…a sure bet in which the boys learned they sure don’t like to part with their money.
Editor's note: Arlington International Racecourse is a beautiful facility from the landscaping to the quality of its people and architecture. Much of this piece is kind of tongue in cheek.
Molly J
