Betting @ MindSay 
It was a hot summer night in the city. It was Weds June 25th, 2008 when myself and three friends traveled north to see and interact with (gamble on) live thoroughbred horse racing at the Woodbine Racetrack.
At 6:30 pm we entered the racetrack and hurried upstairs to the popular Champions patio - we were desperate to get what we assumed would be the last available outdoor seating... only to discover the well appointed patio was completely deserted. My group sat together quietly making bets and perusing the menu in the final minutes before the first race.
Lately I've been playing a horse race game on the computer, and I've been dreaming about visiting the track again - you see I think I've developed this sport's perfect betting strategy.
I pick a good horse (good odds) with an average jockey (good win rate) then i pick a slower horse (weaker odds) with a great jockey (very high win rate). Let's call these horses #1 and #2. When I stand at the betting window I say, '...one dollar exactor box bet, horse #1 and #2'. This means that it doesn't matter which horse comes in first or second (its essentially two bets) and because its a $1 bet I only pay $2.00 total. The value here is the exactor combination is always difficult to win and therefore pays large $$. The $1 box bet exactor is a cheap ticket to a big payout.
It was somewhat deflating to find the racetrack deserted. After interacting with the strange cast of characters on the Get Sulky.com harness racing fan site, I was looking forward to meeting some of the real folks who frequent these Ontario racetracks.
The Ontario Harness Horse Association was formed on the first day of February 1961 to represent Ontario harness horsemen and horsewomen in negotiations of purses, racing conditions. They handle all matters affecting the racing industry with the tracks, Standardbred Canada, the Ontario Racing Commission, and the Provincial and Federal governments. Here's the Ontario Harness Racing lens on Squidoo.
Harness Racing is the third largest agricultural sector in Ontario, in terms of expenditure. This agriculture based industry helps to increase and diversify tourism. Horse racing generates well over $1 billion dollars annually in the province. On a per dollar basis, every dollar of expenditure results in $1.22 in wages, interest, rent and profits. Ontario's horse racing industry generates over 17,000 jobs, many of which are in rural areas.
It seems like every other blog entry I make is about 24 ... both because I haven't been blogging so much of late, and because the show is so kick ass this year. Last week was a bit of a disappointment - the way they got out of the nerve gas situation at CTU was a little too simple compared to the antics they usually come up with. But this week was crazy, especially the last 5 minutes.
In other news, it was quite a crazy first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. I did watch most of the action, and similar to the Super Bowl, managed to lose a fair amount of money on it. I think I'm done gambling on sports for a while - it's just about as unpredictable as a game of Blackjack. Given Maryland isn't even in the tournament this year, I guess I'm pulling for George Mason, the other local team. I'm not a big Georgetown fan, ever since I really wanted to go to school there but didn't even apply after visiting as a senior in high school and realizing how ridiculous short my grades, test scores, and extraciriculars were.