By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
Over the course of a 40-year professional career as a sportswriter, and a dedicated sports fan long before that, there aren’t many sports I haven’t had at least one personal acquaintance with.
Big-time football? I’ve been to multiple Sugar Bowls, plus several other bowl games, numerous New Orleans Saints games, both working and for fun, a junior college national championship game, college games far and wide, and I snuck into a box suite from the basement room in which I was supposed to work, at my only appearance at the Super Bowl.
And that’s not even getting into all the big high school football state championships I’ve seen, including a never-to-be-forgotten visit to the Alabama Super 6 at Legion Field in Birmingham.
Baseball? Never went to the World Series or a playoff game, but I’ve seen big-league games in Houston, Kansas City, Anaheim, Arlington and, best of all, Wrigley Field.
I’ve been to a minor-league game, more than one semipro game, and college, junior college and high school games at some of the highest levels.
Basketball? I’ve been to NBA games, college games, junior college and high school, and seen some amazing things on the court, including a 66-foot game-winner – off the glass – in a high school state semifinal game.
I’ve seen soccer played at all levels, from kids to high school, through college and semipro, and I’ve been to an MLS game. I’ve seen hockey in the flesh, tennis and golf (I used to love covering the Magnolia Amateur at Hattiesburg Country Club).
In high school, I used to run cross country, along with track AND field. I’ve covered swimming meets, triathlons, boxing and wrestling, you name the sport and I’ve probably been there and done that.
But until this past Sunday, one thing I had never done was spend a Day at the Races.
Like most fans, the extent of my real interest in horse racing is in the Triple Crown, and even that isn’t a big draw anymore.
Of course, as a professional sports fan, I’m acquainted with the sport on a more than casual basis. And I know that one of the leading prep races for the Kentucky Derby is the Arkansas Derby, held in late March at Oaklawn Racetrack in Hot Springs, Ark.
But I’ve never lived close enough to a racetrack – the New Orleans Fair Grounds, I believe, is the closest to Hattiesburg – and I’ve never been interested enough in the sport to make a special trip of it. And gambling isn’t my thing anyway.
Still, fate often intervenes, and I found myself at Oaklawn Sunday with my brother, meeting an old buddy of ours from high school who was staying near Hot Springs for the same reason we were, to see the total solar eclipse of the sun on Monday.
We had set aside Sunday as a day to scout out a spot for viewing the celestial wonder, but then the decision was made ahead of time to lock in our plans, so we had the day free.
The friend we wanted to see was going to the races with his daughter and the cousin with whom he was staying, so in the name of renewing old friendships, we went to the races. First time for everything, and I was actually excited about doing something I’d never done before.
The first decision I made, though, was that the only money the track was going to get from me would be for refreshments.
There’s no admission fee to enter – they make all their money from gamblers – so a day at the races can be a cheap date, if you keep your money away from the betting window.
Late in the day, I was tempted to lay down a modest $2 bet on the last race we saw, but by the time I started scouting for help, post time was minutes away and I had other things I wanted to do for that race.
One thing you need to know about a day at the races. It’s a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. The races themselves only take about a minute or so to run, then there’s anywhere from 20-30 minutes until the next race.
The card at Oaklawn Sunday called for nine races, with the eighth as featured race, the inaugural Eclipse Stakes, so named for obvious reasons.
According to the original schedule, Sunday was supposed to be an off day for racing, but an earlier date was postponed because of cold weather and rescheduled for the weekend of the eclipse.
Things are fairly quiet at the track until the first post time approaches, 12:30 p.m. in the case of Sunday. Then the buzz grows, and people start collecting along the rail and in the wide concourse between the rail wall and the lower grandstand.
As each race approaches, a track analyst comes on the track video with tips about certain horses, how the odds stack up and what to look for.
Here’s a tip from someone who didn’t bet: Take what they say in one ear and out the other. They don’t have any better clue than anyone else; it’s all a guessing game with horses at this level.
Still, whether you are betting or there just for fun, the first two things you need are copies of the official program and that day’s Daily Racing Form, quite possibly the last stand for print media.
The Daily Racing Form is a tabloid newspaper that publishes regional editions that cover some of the tracks that are in-season that given day. The edition of the Form we got covers races at Oaklawn, Aqueduct in New York and Keeneland in Kentucky.
It has the results of every horse entered in every race at the tracks that it covers. In detail. I talk to people today and one of the things they say they regret most about the loss of the daily newspaper is the fine print page in the sports section, the daily minutiae of sports.
Well, folks, you get that in scads in the Daily Racing Form. All the intricate facts and figures that go into how tracks lay odds on each horse in each race and how bettors read those figures and make educated guesses on how a particular horse is going to perform that day.
In order to make money as a bettor on horse races, you almost have to immerse yourself in whole horse racing subculture – know about all the breeders and bloodlines, the trainers and jockeys – and study up on the sport on a pretty relentless basis.
For the casual bettor, it’s totally a guessing game. You can look in the program or on the Form for a horse’s past results and can maybe spot some trends, a few 1s, 2s and 3s on the resume, that might lead you to bet a certain way.
But most casual fans end up like my brother, who bet $9 in each of the six races we stayed to watch. He won a couple of races and had a second, and still came out about $35 to the negative. He called it a good day.
And it was. We had a great time. Enjoyed the day with an old friend and his family, ate a really good Chicago-style pizza across the street from the track, and watched some good races.
Looking back, the one race I really should have put a bet down on was the second race, a $30,000 purse for colts and fillies, three-years-old and up, a one-mile ride around the track.
In the post parade before the race, my attention was grabbed by the No. 2 horse, a four-year-old filly named Miss Analyzed.
I was actually drawn by the rider’s colors, an orange-and-white checkerboard, and the fact that the jockey was a woman named Kelsi Harr. Females are still a minority at this track, as they are at most tracks, the horse had long odds – 10-1 to start the day– and I always go for a good underdog story.
So, I took several pictures of Harr and Miss Analyzed – including a couple as they crossed the finish line winners by about six lengths. As a significant underdog, Miss Analyzed paid out a handsome $28.20 to win, $12.20 to place and $6.60 to show.
The best race we saw was the sixth race, the last one of the day for us. This was a $31,000 claiming race for both fillies and colts three-years-old and up that have not won three races, and none since December 7.
This was a mile-and-1/16, which meant the race would start right in front of us. So, I decided to get a photo gallery of this race from start to finish. I’d say I called it right. You can see the results in the photo gallery that will accompany this column.
The favorites were It’sfiftyshadetime, at 7-2, Honey Run at 4-1 and Indy Again at 9-2. As the field passed the grandstand for the first time, it was She Be Sheehan that set the pace heading into the back half of the track.
Midway through the race, the favorite, Honey Run (5-2 at post time) was out ahead by three lengths, but by the time they came to the homestretch, it was the second favorite, It’sfiftyshadetime (9-2 at post time) that had the lead.
However, on the outside, a real longshot was coming up to challenge. Chasing Shadows had started the day at 15-1, but by post time, the six-year-old colt was 21-1. Nevertheless, there he was making a bid.
While the rest of the field fell away, It’sfiftyshadetime and Chasing Shadows dueled down the final 1/16 to a photo finish, with the longshot winning by a couple of nose hairs.
It was a pretty exciting climax to the afternoon’s festivities, a really nice introduction to the Sport of Kings.
I can’t say that I will ever darken the door of a racetrack again in whatever time I have remaining on this earth, but for one beautiful Sunday afternoon, it was great way to spend the day.
But the best part of the weekend was still to come, and that’s a whole other story.
Stan Caldwell is a veteran sportswriter with 40 years’ experience working in the Hattiesburg area.
