Charlie,
One of my favorite racing stories is about the Red Mile. I was living in Kentucky at the time and my brother Ricky came for a visit. He had never seen a race horse in the flesh and his head was on a swivel, trying to take it all in.
For the first race, I took him to a betting window and told him my pick, so he bet $2 on my horse. I also bet the daily double with one horse in the first leg and two in the second. None were favorites.
My horse won that first race by a head and my brother's $2 turned into $20. I remember the grin on his face when the cashier swapped his winning ticket for a crisp Andy Jackson. While we were standing there, I gave him my two horses in the second race and he bet those.
We grabbed a beer and a sandwich and watched one my horses win the second leg. This time Ricky got back more than $20 and he was grinning again. Then he watched in astonishment as the cashier counted out a stack of $20s for my winning daily double ticket.
At first he was angry. "Why didn't you tell me to bet like that?" I told him it was a low-percentage play and I got lucky. Then he said, "Why are you working? You could be doing this all the time!"
Yeah, right.
It was a long time ago and he hasn't watched another race live since then. But he still talks about it. What a great experience to share with my brother.
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