Laura Andrews, who worked in our sales and marketing department, told me her husband Mike knew a bit about horses.
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I’d have to play the first seven on the limited knowledge I gained from them on how to read the program and the sage advice I had received from friends, colleagues and a few racing insiders. “But there are always those surprises that seem to kill me in my wagering.”īy the time I arrived Kruse and Zimmerman were already handicapping the eighth race. “You know who rides better than others and who trains better than others, who has better stock,” he says. Information is a dangerous tool.”Įxperience has told Zimmerman that the most important factors at local races are jockeys and trainers. We might bring up something they didn’t catch. “But there are people out here who know nothing, and are just looking for some kind of insight as to how to look at it, or they want a reason for why they’re going to bet on a horse. No matter what the numbers say, something else can happen. “I watch horse racing on the Internet constantly,” Zimmerman says. He’s held a variety of jobs there, including maintenance, management and handicapping, which he’s done for the last 15 years. Zimmerman grew up in Aberdeen and has been coming to the racetrack since he was 4 years old. A glance tells you where the horse has run in the last two years, who the jockey was, where the horse finished, the track conditions and a brief summary of the performance (“steadily faded,” “weakened final furlong,” “loomed boldly”). Those seemingly random numbers and letters are a snapshot of each horse’s racing history. Inside the expo building I found Ernie Kruse and Floyd Zimmerman, and the program began making sense. The program seller must have sensed my bewilderment, and told me that an hour before every race local experts hold a seminar to explain the program to potential bettors. “We’ll race today.”įans and potential bettors scrutinize their programs and study the horses in the paddock before each race.Īs post time neared, I bought a program, only to find a confusing jumble of letters and numbers beside each horse’s name. “This track drains really well,” Schmidt said. Fairgrounds manager Mike Schmidt swept excess water from beneath the grandstands as if it were nothing more than a nuisance. A John Deere tractor slowly smoothed the rich, brown dirt on the track, while horses and trainers milled about the parking lot. A few cotton ball clouds dotted a deep blue sky. Three hours - and nearly half an inch of rain - later I walked into the Brown County Fairgrounds. Rain could mean postponement or even cancellation of the final weekend of the South Dakota Horse Racing Association’s 2013 season. I pulled back the curtain and beheld a dull gray sky and a parking lot pockmarked with slowly swelling puddles. I awoke on race day to the rumble of thunder and the steady cadence of raindrops striking the pavement outside my hotel window. That’s true for hundreds of jockeys, owners, trainers, handicappers and fans that pack the grandstands.Īnd the old adage is true. Once it’s in your blood, you live it every hour of every day. I learned two things at the racetrack that day. They would wonder if I’d gotten inside information. What if I got lucky? What if I bet half the money on a long shot and came home with $500, or $1,000? Racetrack veterans would be astonished. Still, the thought of losing $100 (and I just knew I would lose it, because going to the racetrack was akin to abandoning me in a foreign land) made me slightly anxious.īut somewhere in my stomach was a twinge of excitement. It shouldn’t have mattered if I lost every penny. It was simply to help immerse myself in South Dakota’s rich horse racing culture, which takes center stage in Fort Pierre and Aberdeen for just six weeks every spring. Perhaps it’s my stoic, fiscally conservative Norwegian lineage, but the idea of playing fast and loose with my money has That’s why I felt conflicted when the publisher of this magazine gave me $100 of betting money the day before I left to attend my first horse race. South Dakota's horse racing season occupies six weekends every spring. Horses take off from the starting gate during a race at the Brown County Fairgrounds in Aberdeen.
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