I'm a Horse Owner.... Sort Of

Saturday I took the trip to the track that I had mentioned a week ago. It was an experience, I can say that much. Lost some money, limited myself to $28 so it wasn't that bad. I won about $8 from my bets from the eight or so races we saw. I came excruciatingly close to winning big on two races, but obviously I didn't otherwise it wouldn't have been excruciating. Out of the three of us that went I think I ended up doing the best. So, all in all we're not too good with the betting on the ponies.
Many interesting people roaming the grounds. There were your daily visitors, saw a few with notebooks taking notes and looking back over previous entries before they placed their bets, the weekend warriors, those that like to go every once in awhile to have some fun with a group, and then the complete novice, namely me. One thing about the people that struck me as odd was the jockeys. They were a bit taller than I had thought they'd be. The shortest person I saw there was actually a handler, he couldn't have been an inch over five feet tall.
Now comes the part of the story that the title came from. Upon entering the grounds everyone of age was handed a little pink slip that we could fill out and enter for a chance to become a "virtual" horse owner. Not thirty minutes after turning it in my name was called. So I had to walk down toward the winner's circle and I was represented by one of the ten horses. I was initially called as an alternate, but lucky for me one of the people didn't show so I was "owner" of the race favorite. I didn't win the race though. My horse came in a close second. Little did I realize however that there was a second part to the prestige of virtually owning a horse. Over the course of the night the announcer continued to call out the fasted times for the races where the virtual owners took part. I didn't pay any attention to it because 1) I thought he was talking about race stats and all that is Greek to me and 2) I had no idea about this second part.
Fast forward to later that night when I get home. I checked my email and found a message from a coordinator for the track. Turns out my horse had one of the ten fastest times and they invited me back to watch my horse on August 13th. The invite includes a valet parking pass and two passes for myself and a guest to watch the races that day from one of their suites. If my horse should happen to win the race I win $1,000 for being the owner. I'm not going to pass up a chance like that. At least when I go back the next time I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing when I bet, if I bet, on the races and I could end up winning some big money. I'm all about getting money for not doing a damn thing. I'll of course let you in on how that night turns out. Probably won't win the thou, but at least I can spend the night watching the races in a swank suite with free food. Again, I'm all about the free shit.
This week is the last week for my final summer class. Then it's two weeks rest and working on those projects before the fall grind starts up. I'm going to be looking forward to getting this class over with. Managerial accounting... It's just as fun as it sounds!
In other news, I finally picked up the Home Movies Season 1 DVD's. It only took me nearly a year to finally get it. It was my belated birthday gift to myself.