Horse Racing!

The annual Barbados Turf Club Gold Cup Race was held on March 04, 2017, and was an exciting and fun day for us. The race was largely sponsored by Sandy Lane - a huge resort and residential area in Barbados - and they even had "Mr. Sandy Lane" dressed in pink to be part of the official start of the day.

We enjoyed beer and hot dogs while taking in the races and the warm weather, and had a ball looking at fancy hats.

I started betting on races using "to place" rather than "to win", and bet on the horses that had won the most money in their history. The first 6 races I actually got most of my money back and it seemed I was good at picking first place, even though I didn't bet "to win".

So... why not just bet on the horse "to win" and get a bigger payday... sure... let's try that. I went to the betting wicket and placed bets on the remaining races, and as is the case with all gambling.... we ended up winning about 25% of what we spent... Argghh.... Everyone thinks they have system - yah.... right ..... (the "we" in this case was me... Doh!)

There was a big parade after race #9. The parade was to celebrate the running of another Gold Cup Race. It had several bands, many dancers of all sorts, and was filled with costumes! What fun! The Gold Cup Race would be run right after the parade.

We met up with one of our new Barbados friends - Gayle - as her family has had many years of entries in horse racing events. Their Gold Cup entry was Daunting David - he had won several races in the past and we had our fingers crossed for Gayle and her family.

The Gold Cup Race was ready to begin... race #10, and the purse was Bds$214,000.00. There were horses entered in the race from Barbados, USA, and Trinidad. While I was at the betting booth, I asked a local horse groom who they would bet on. After he looked carefully at the names of the horses on my sheet, he said numbers 3, 5, and 7. The groom thought all would place in the top three but he didn't know the order. I didn't know what to think now, as the guy looked rather dodgy to me and might be feeding me line of b.s.... so now what? Hmmmm, I had other ideas, as I had a system. So I bet to win (not place) on horses that I had already selected - 3 and 13, and also on Daunting David (12) in support of Gayle.

So, the race was run and the crowd went wild as one of their local horses (Dorsett) took first place. I gasped as first, second and third came in at 5, 7, and 3, just like the groom had predicted. Aaaargh.... again... its definitely time to scrap the system. All in, we lost about CAN$50.00 but had a great day.