Derby Day

I don't really get horse racing.  Honestly, I'm not even sure I agree with it.  A bunch of dudes hitting horses to make them go faster? I'm not a fan of people hurting any animals. Even if those animals scare me to death. But I'm from Maryland, and horse racing is big so I suppose I sort of just go along with it. That doesn't mean I understand it - like at all. 

The whole darn race happens in, like, 30 seconds.  People spend all day partying for a race that's going to last less than a minute. That just doesn't seem like a logical way to spend a day.  Then there's the odds.  I know I'm not fabulous with math, but I do understand odds and statistics in practice.  But how in the world do the betmakers decide that one horse is a 50-1 odd and another is a 100-1?  It just doesn't make sense.  Then there's the people that place ungodly high bets based on these odds.  What?!

I'm not even willing to pay the $1 for a lottery ticket because the odds are too low, but these guys plop down hundreds and thousands of dollars on someone randomly placing odds on whether one horse may out-run another.  Is this sounding more and more like a racket to anyone else, but me?  

But then again, you do get to dress up in pretty dresses and lovely large-brimmed hats, drink mint juleps and basically hob-knob with the upper crust, so I suppose that's fun too.  That part of the day actually sounds fantastic, without getting all the horses, jockies, and manure smell involved.

Maybe I can just find me a great hat-dress combo, and go watch the O's instead...That sounds much better!  But until then, Congrats to Nyquist!