One moves quickly, hesitating only briefly to purchase the appropriate charts and statistics. Then, it is up the escalator and out for the main floor stroll. The television monitors flash incessantly. There are statistics, times, pictures of thoroughbreds, photo opportunities, track conditions, and a plethora of other sensory stimuli that roll over the eyes as an overwhelming tide of what if’s…what race is it? who’s in the lead? I took too long in the parking lot. Race three is already over. Race three would have been my race. It should have been my race. I should have picked another track. The results are official. I refuse to acknowledge them. It is on to race four. Horse racing is driven by this anxiety. We all attempt to calculate the seemingly incalculatable. We question ourselves and the various conditions to absurdity.

The situation is entirely cramped/confined. We sit elbow to elbow, scanning the sheets, handicapping on scrap pieces of paper. We wait until the last possible moment, when the odds have been calculated most efficiently, we move. To the windows we migrate, shouting out track names, horse numbers, wager amounts, and wager types. Delta Downs. Race Seven. Horse Six. Ten Dollars to win.

The choice are numerous. Trifecta. Perfecta. Show. Place. Win. and every corresponding combination of the preceeding bet types.

Then, it is back to the tables, back to the loose cigarettes, back to the television screens. The race begins, the shouts bellow forth from the seething tide, and the horses dance their dance. We breath a collective breath, and release it as the horses cross the line. Some win, and wait impatiently for the stats to be verified. Most lose. With horse racing, there is not enough time to sulk in the monetary expenditure which horse four failed to back. There are more charts to read, more figures, more phone calls to be made, more side discussions to start, more alcohol to drink, more counters to visit, more losing tickets to discard, more cigarettes to smoke. Eventually, you walk out broke, not knowing how you got there.