How to Bet on the Ponies |

Growing up, I visited a horse trail or saw one horse race.
That all changed once I met Kate and married into a horse race-loving family. Rick Surwilo, my father-in-law, had begun visiting the racetrack for a teenager with his loved ones. This was a time prior to lotteries and casinos, and horse racing was the only legal form of gaming, so it was something really different to go and do. His family lived in Connecticut but had purchased a little house in Woodford, Vermont, also Rick’s dad loved to take the wife and kids to the Green Mountain Race Track in Pownal, just a little ways south of there. They had set up their lawn chairs from the finish line, and Grandpa Surwilo would take everybody’s orders and move relay the stakes to the tellers.
When I began dating Kate, one of those first, and many amorous, dates was once she took me into the racetrack here in Tulsa. We had a great time betting on a few horse races while snuggling in the bleachers as a thunderstorm rolled in.
Following Kate and I got hitched, her parents could take us to the horse races every other summer or so, and also gave us poor newlyweds a little scratch to bet with. Rick’s father had long since passed away, but Gram Surwilo–each inch the stereotypical feisty Italian grandmother –still loved to go and bet on the ponies, as she had from the previous days in Vermont.
I really enjoyed these outings with my extended family, and putting a few bets myself, but I admittedly had no clue what I was doing. I mostly just picked the horses with the titles I liked best.
So I jumped at the chance America’s Best Racing offered me a month or two ago to come see one of those six pre-Kentucky Derby races–that the Spiral Stakes–at Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky, and also get some lessons on how best to bet on the ponies. Kate and I had a terrific time there and learned a ton. Betting on horses is a lot more complex than I’d imagined, but it is a really fantastic deal of fun.
Now, I’ll share a few of the fundamentals of what I learned, so the horse racing neophyte can make the most of this superb spring weather and go down to their regional racetrack (or the Kentucky Derby!) Feeling like they know what they’re doing.