Off to the Races

The day of the much anticipated Cartmel Steeplechase race finally arrived. However, due to the flight cancellation disaster on our way here, the day in which I planned to buy a fancy, embarassing to Kevin hat was spent in the Atlanta airport. Nevertheless, I arrived at the race eager with anticipation. I finally got to attend a traditional British sporting event. Even better, I got to attend in traditional English weather – dreary and wet.

For the first two races, we stood in the Paddock grandstands directly in front of the finish line. The atmosphere was rather interested – the crowd was quiet and talked among themselves while the horses ran a slow pace around the course . However, once the horses were clear of the water obstacles and jumps, they picked up the pace on the final straightaway. With the increase in pace came a drastic increase in noise level. I had to laugh because one of the older women in front of us for the first race reminded me of Eliza Doolittle – but instead of the horse being named Dover, it was named Strikemaster.

For the first three races, Kevin and I decided to try our hand at horse betting. The process is extremely confusing. First of all, you need to decide which of the 10 different betting companies you are going to use. Then you have to struggle to understand what all the payouts for each horse are. Finally, you have to decide what you actually want to bet on – win, place, eachway, swinger, exacta, trifecta, placepot, quadpot, jackpot, super 7 or scoop 6. We stuck with eachway – which means that you pick a horse and get a payout if the horse wins or a smaller payout if it places. For the first race, Juvenile Novices, Kevin chose Melange as it was the top rated US horse in the race. Unfortunately, the horse wound up in 4th place. Since their were only 7 horses running, only 1st and 2nd place payed out, so there went £4 down the drain. I was in charge of picking a winner for the second race. I went with Little Firecracker because it had middle of the road odds and a funny name. This time, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place were paying out, but once again our horse came in 4th. There went another £4.

The horses race down the final straight-away

We moved to the back side of the course to see the horses jumping for the 3rd and 4th race. We chose Nile Moon as our horse for the third race mainly because I liked the name. The horse was in 2nd/3rd place for most of the race but then dropped out right before the horse turned into the final stretch. Foiled again. We decided that £12 was enough to throw down the tubes so for the final race, we just each picked our favorites but didn’t bet any money. Since no one won, I’m glad we didn’t waste any more money.

We called it a day after a short trip to Cartmel Village Bakehouse to buy some of the world’s best Sticky Toffee Pudding, just in time to beat the downpour.

Cartmel Priory as seen from the racetrack

Tomorrow, Mumsy Don and I head to Edinburgh. Check back on Thursday night for our exploits.