It's Saturday afternoon at the Woodbine racetrack. Everyone is hopeful except for the guy who always loses in the last leg of the pick 4 he proclaimed.
It's been a long day for me as I had been out and about since 6:30 am but I remained disciplined as I scoured the trackside area looking for any type of action. I say hello to an old-timer who plays the horses and makes friendly chats to people as they pass by and he says hi back. I introduces myself and proceeded to tell him about what I am doing with my YouTube channel and my Facebook group but he already knows and is fully up to date.
He recognizes me and quizzes me like most horsemen from my native land Barbados often do about my knowledge of the horses. The fans are passionate about racing from the island of Barbados and can often be caught in long conversations about horses and the horse's parents also. I did what I normally do and proclaimed to know very little about racing and I figure that should keep the argument one-sided.
I found out that this man had been going to the races for over fifty years. He has great knowledge of the races and the industry of horse racing. He talks with confidence and he only uses the big Daily Racing Form and wouldn't rely on the smaller program to guide his picks ever when making a bet.
As I dug more into the conversation I found out many things including that the stranger I just met is a former racehorse owner and also that we both attended the same school back in Barbados not at the same time. I dug deeper and I found out that he also knew my father very well, especially during the times when my father represented our native country Barbados playing football.
As the conversation went on and the quizzes kept rolling on the stranger was a bit annoyed that his old buddy Winston Wilkinson, was being left out of the conversation when talking about the great horse trainers from Barbados who had trained in North America. He had a good argument I figured for anyone willing to challenge his knowledge but this time there was no one to challenge him, just me.
So the next time you come to the races please remember that they are many things to talk about at the racetrack, especially between races while waiting for a pick 4 winner.