You Can't Go Wrong With $2 Bets

I heard a song by Au Revoir Simone on the radio on the way to work yesterday that has become one of my favorite songs ever and I've been singing it in my head pretty much constantly the past two days. The first few lines of "Night Majestic":
We want to celebrate
and there's a place that we go
where the horses are for show
and they race for prize at the end of the line
and it impresses us.

For several years our family would celebrate my grandma's birthday at Ellis Park in Kentucky (but not across the river!). My parents would always give my sister and me $20 to spend on horses but we were too young to place our own bets so my parents, aunts, uncles, or cousins would have to buy our $2 tickets (always to show - maybe place if we were feeling lucky) for us. We'd fill the time between races with trips to the buffet, walks down to the track, and intense sessions scouring the listings for the next race. I think I made out ahead one year but technically I guess I was always ahead since I never spent my own money. I don't think I would really enjoy off-track betting but you can't beat an afternoon at the track.


And a kind of poor-quality video of "Night Majestic"...