Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Honey Extraction Moon<\/p>\n
“Those who go overseas find a change of climate, not a change of soul.” – Horace<\/p>\n
Horace has an early version here of wherever you go, there you are.\u00a0 My brother has carried the same soul with him from the soi of Bangkok to the exurbs of the Twin Cities.<\/p>\n
Mark, Kate and I took off through the beautiful backroads of northern Anoka county and made it, after a couple of years of talking about it, to the Running Aces Harness Track.\u00a0 I’m not kidding about northern Anoka county, much of it is as interesting and as attractive as the northern part of the state.\u00a0 There are large stretches of marsh land and forest, small lakes, pine trees and surprisingly few development thanks to a generally high water table.\u00a0 Driving back in the night it was exactly like traveling on county roads in Cook County.<\/p>\n
Running Aces.\u00a0 A subculture, harness racing has a lovely track here with plenty of seating and parimutuel betting.\u00a0 When you drive up, there is a big port cochere, much like the entrance to a resort hotel. On the benches around the curve of the drive a man sat hunched over smoking, his peroxide blonde hair mussed, as if he had been running his hands through it.\u00a0 Just inside the glass doors a floor to ceiling painting commemorates Minnesota’s harness racing legend, Dan Patch.<\/p>\n
Floor to ceiling glass doors allow a glimpse of the harness track off to the left, it’s gravel covered surface banked and curved.\u00a0\u00a0 In the middle of a half moon layout and up on a raised floor was the off track betting area where races throughout the country showed up on several flat screens mounted one next to the other.\u00a0 A woman with bottle red hair, a jean-jacket and sequined cowboy boots passed betting slips to a middle-aged man with an impressive paunch.\u00a0 They studied them, trying to read the runes.<\/p>\n
At the right lies the card room.\u00a0 Several Asian folks played Pai Gow Poker<\/a>, an Americanized version of a game originally played with Mahjhong tiles.\u00a0 There were black jack tables, the James Bond favorite, baccarat, a Mississippi river boat table and several, perhaps 12 or 14 tables filled with 8 players each engaged in Texas Hold’em, the dominant form of poker played on the professional circuit.<\/p>\n We passed those by and headed out to the track. (Though I snuck inside later and checked them both out.)<\/p>\n The betting windows have wood fronts and look much like old bank teller cubicles, save for the How to Bet sign posted below.\u00a0 The betting windows and three lines of chairs occupy an enclosed area that has a full view of the track, but has either A\/C or heat depending on the circumstances.\u00a0 Outside there were tables, rows of chairs, a few benches right in front of the track and a restaurant with a patio area.<\/p>\n Kate and Mark had purchased a racing program while I parked and they had it out, trying to read it, figure out the symbols and the information about horses in each of 8 races on the card for the evening.\u00a0 Post time was at 7 pm.\u00a0 We missed the first race, but saw the second.\u00a0 A white Cadillac has a long starting gate arranged like dragon fly wings while extended.\u00a0 The Cadillac takes off and the horses trot up as the Cadillac heads toward the starting point about half way around the large, 5\/8ths mile track.\u00a0 When the Cadillac hits the starting point the dragon fly wings retract and the horses take off in a flying start.<\/p>\n Tonight a 3\/4 Honey Extraction Moon sat directly over the far straight away as the sky went from blue to dark blue to bruised red then a clear night.\u00a0 The air temp was about 68 degrees.\u00a0 A perfect night for racing.<\/p>\n We didn’t understand much of what was said and even less of what was written, but we did see a couple of races where a horse came from back in the field to win at the end.\u00a0 I noticed a guy in jeans and a windbreaker come to full attention as the horses pounded down the main straight headed for the finish line.\u00a0 What happened mattered to him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Honey Extraction Moon “Those who go overseas find a change of climate, not a change of soul.” – Horace Horace has an early version here of wherever you go, there you are.\u00a0 My brother has carried the same soul with him from the soi of Bangkok to the exurbs of the Twin Cities. … Continue reading Running Aces Harness Track<\/span>