Beltane Summer Moon
An evening at the races. The harness races. Though we went early, a reservation for dinner at 5 pm, so we could watch the Belmont Stakes. Kate got very excited during the Belmont. She was, and so was I, saddened by California Chrome’s inability to make up ground. We wanted to see a Triple Crown win. After all, we’re not getting any younger.
Running Aces, the harness track up here not far from us, has a two tiered seating arrangement like the tables at Canterbury Downs, each table with its own TV that can be tuned to a closed circuit channel once the local race card begins.
The evening began cloudy but the sun came out, shining on the wetland that sits in the track’s center, mallards and egrets taking off and landing while the horses in their hobbles pulled their sulkies behind them, warming up, jockey’s pulling back on long reins, leaning way back to get leverage. Since my family has been in harness racing for three generations, I have some memories associated with the sport, though I only went to the races a couple of times in Indiana.
Dan Patch, from Savage, was a champion of champions in the harness racing world and a much larger than life size portrait of him greets visitors as they go through the doors at Running Aces. Immediately to the right are the poker tables, blackjack and other dealer led games. Midway in, also on the right, just beyond and above the card room, is a bank of televisions tuned to different race tracks all across the U.S. Bettors who want to wager on those races can use computers lined up in three rows, computers on either side of the row. The serious horse race betting goes on up there.
Running Aces betting tellers are further in and to the left. While dining, employees will come to the table and place bets for you. The atmosphere is low key, but the peculiar tension associated with gambling, the dream of the win, dejection with a loss, thrums in the background.
The only time I got excited during the races was when Cowgirls RocknRoll raced in the third race. She had a wonderful blue combination of colors, including the sulky and the wheels on the sulky. I’m convinced the jockey threw the race or she would have done much better than fourth. She was, though, without a doubt, the prettiest entrant in that race.
