For my cousin's 21st birthday, my family took a trip to the horse racing track in Charles Town, WV. Of course we got into the gambling...I had a lot of fun with it as I was surprised how certain horses earn your favor before they start racing. Because this was my first time wagering on the placement of the horses racing; I choose to only put down $20. There were 8 races with about 30 minutes between each race to allow for last minute studying of the horses racing and to also see what they look like. In my opinion, I definitely did well for my first time.
On the first race I won $30+ and was hooked. At that moment I figured if I had money left, then I was going to make bids for each of the races. Out of the 8 races...only two got me and only one of my bets was actually a lost bet. Race 7 was my absolute best as I made an Exacta bet which means that I was calling which two horses were getting the Win & Place (1st & 2nd). This Extacta bet also means that you have to call which of the two horse gets the win.....and I nailed that call. I should have stopped because the shortest race was left for last and I found out it is hard to call. I kinda hedged my bets on the last race but because of that I also threw away money. I learned how to do it and I would go about it differently next time. I had a lot of fun and I ended up leaving with $13.60 of my original $20. The experience and learning strategies was worth way more than what I lost.
