A Day At The Races

We spent Saturday at the Belmont Park racetrack.





My brother-in-law Steve invited us to a charity event that his brother Mark was hosting. I loved Mark's invitation! (a little 'play' on the Marx Bros. "A Day At The Races")







Mark reserved a grandstand picnic area for us:




We had lots of fun:






And we did lots of cheering!


And our horses even won some of the races!

Here's my Aunt Florence, she bets on the dog races when she's down South, so she knew what she was doing and she looked at the odds. I went by the horses names and/or color (Color? Yes, because my Aunt Margie always used to say "Bet on the gray!").


I've only been to the racetrack one other time in my life, so I have no idea what I'm doing. But I had fun anyway, and sometimes I even won!

Some of the races were on the dirt...





...and some of the races were on the grass.

In this race I picked 'Bambi Bound' to win, she's pulling ahead here, and...

...SHE WINS!


We also took a walk to the other side of the racetrack to view the horses and the jockeys in the paddock:


Really beautiful animals!




And here's one of my bets, Bambi Bound:


And we got an 'up close and personal' view of one of the gate-crew horses that lead the race horses to the gate. This horse was so obedient and compliant, and he was very approachable:




(Now here's a little 'aside' story that shocked me. You see that other little boy petting the horse with Jayden? His name is Sean, he was a sweet little boy, but he was not with our party. His Dad just happened to be there at the racetrack that day and Sean struck up a conversation with Jayden, and he came into our picnic area and the boys played together. We decided we would go see the horses on the other side of the track, I told Ray I would go to the Ladies Room and then meet him. I was surprised to see Sean with him and I asked where his father was, and Ray said Sean asked his father if he could go along and his father said YES! I was incredulous! I asked Ray if the father said yes directly to Ray and he said that's what happened. Would you ever let your eight-year-old go off with a stranger???!! I did not feel comfortable with this situation at all! It's not like the boy was with anyone in our party! I was relieved when his Dad showed up awhile later. I said to Ray he probably was on the phone with his wife, telling her how he let their son go off to see the horses with strangers and she made him high-tail it over to us!)




Ray got a kick out of this cameraman protecting his shoes with plastic grocery bags:



On the last race we all picked 'Prince Will I Am' to win because my nephew's name is William (my sister Diane and brother-in-law Steve's son). And, oh, the cheering when he crossed the finish line!





It's official! Prince Will I Am won!