Saturday, April 24, 2010

Off to The Races at Hollywood Park

Up until last night, I'd never been to a horse track before.

Holy hell was I missing out. As an animal lover, I certainly had my moments of "I hope these beautiful creatures are being treated well and have good lives," but as an insanely competitive freakazoid, I also had a bunch of "COME ON NUMBER FOUR!!! MAMA NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF SHOES!!!" outbursts.

Not only was it a great night of gambling and ridiculousness, it was capped by a Joan Jett and the Blackhearts concert which was free with your $8 admission to the track! Let's put another dime in the jukebox, baby and get into it.

En route to the track, Randy's Donuts (featured in "Iron Man 2" which I saw on Thursday, but more on that later), an LA institution.

I wanted to stop for either a glazed old fashioned or an apple fritter, but we had places to be.

I believe this is called a paddock but I'm not really down with the track lingo. It's the Alice in Wonderland-looking promenade where the horses are shown pre-race so you can pick your favorites. I was so bummed we didn't have any carrots or apples but Rachel said it probably wasn't on their strict diets. "They're athletes," she said.

Studying our programs...

Big money, no whammies.

Rachel and Ricky scooping the competitors. Ricky showed us the ways of the track, taking me to place my first ever bet.

We got a good feeling about that one.

The lovely gentlemen who took my four dollars and placed my bet for me. Minutes later, one of the two tickets he handed me would be a winner!
Way to go, Ruination! Better luck next time, Bran Jammas. That was my favorite name of the night. Rachel said it sounded like grandma's breakfast cereal.
Looking back to the stands from the outdoor stage where Joan Jett was getting ready to rock.
Yeah. Bah da da da da dah. My, my such a sweet thing. I wanna do everything. What a beautiful feeling.
By the end of the night, I was only down $4.40 after four bets, had experienced some of the best people watching of my life, and now have another great place to head on Friday nights over the summer. If the cute boy who worked with Jenny had asked for my number (oh, boys), Rachel had brought a jacket (it was kinda cold and we ended up sharing my sweater), and DollarDollarBillYall (my other favorite name of the night) hadn't scratched, it would have been a perfect evening. As is, I give it a 9.75.

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