Canterbury Park’s 2022 racing season runs from May 18 to Sept 17. For horse players they have a low 10% takeout on the early pick 4 and pick 5 wagers. There is something happening for the family almost every weekend. Although, I find the basset hound, corgi, wiener dog, and zoo animal contests an unwanted distraction from the horse racing action.
I’ve seen a lot of things happen, both good and bad, as they often do at live sporting events. I was there once when a huge thunderstorm rolled in and halted racing. I’ve seen numerous horse and jockey injuries. I once saw a helicopter land near the track to take a jockey to the hospital. I was sitting outside once and a kid who was walking with his mother stopped right in front of me and threw up. Not a pretty sight. My biggest win there was around $340. Most of the time I would break even or come out slightly ahead. But those were the days when I was still trying to figure out how to handicap a race.
I live about two miles from Canterbury Park and have attended many live races in the past 10 years. This year I was looking forward to going to the races. I can no longer work, so I have more time to handicap races. But a few things are preventing me from going to the track. People are still spreading COVID, and the stock market has wiped out all of the gains that I had in the last 2 years. The money I have left is slowly being consumed by inflation. Even though it doesn’t cost much to get an admission ticket, I can’t take a chance on having a losing day at the track. When I was getting a regular paycheck, I could take a couple hundred out to work with. Now, that money needs to go toward paying utility, mortgage, and insurance bills.
It’s sad and depressing when you can’t partake in something you enjoy, like going to the track. I still place a wager on TVG from time to time. Lately, I’ve been invited to play in their free pick 5 contests. Players who pick the winner in 5 races get to split a $5000 prize. If you get 4 out of 5, you split $1000. So far this year, TVG has paid me $47.24 from promotions. If you would like to wager on TVG please use my referral link to open an account. My picks for the Preakness: 4 (Secret Oath), 5 (Simplification), 8 (Epicenter)