Growing up, I never visited a horse trail or saw one horse race.
That all changed once I met Kate and married to some horse race-loving family. Rick Surwilo, my father-in-law, had begun visiting the racetrack for a teenager with his family. This was a time before lotteries and casinos, and horse racing was the only legal form of gaming, so it was something quite different to really go and do. His family lived in Connecticut but had bought a tiny house in Woodford, Vermont, also Rick’s daddy loved to take the wife and kids to the Green Mountain Race Track in Pownal, only a little ways south of that time. They’d set up their lawn chairs by the finish line, and Grandpa Surwilo would take everybody’s orders and move relay the stakes into the tellers.
When I began dating Kate, one of our first, and most romantic, dates was when she took me to the racetrack here in Tulsa. We had an excellent time gambling on a few horse races while snuggling from the bleachers as a thunderstorm rolled in.
After Kate and I got hitched, her parents could take us to the horse races every other summer or so, and also gave us bad newlyweds a tiny scratch to bet with. Rick’s father had long since passed away, but Gram Surwilo–each inch the stereotypical feisty Italian grandmother –loved to go and bet on the ponies, as she had from the old days in Vermont.
I really enjoyed these excursions with my extended family, and putting a few bets myself, but I admittedly had no idea what I was doing. I mainly just picked the horses together with the names I liked best.
So I jumped at the opportunity America’s Best Racing offered me a month or two back to come see among those six pre-Kentucky Derby races–the Spiral Stakes–in Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky, and get some lessons on the best way best to bet on the ponies. Kate and I had a great time there and learned a ton. Betting on horses is a lot more complicated than I had imagined, but it is a really great deal of fun.
Today, I’ll share some of the basics of what I learned, so that the horse racing neophyte can take advantage of this wonderful spring weather and return to their regional racetrack (or the Kentucky Derby! ) ) Feeling as though they know what they’re doing.

Read more here: https://sitgesworldmagazine.com/sportsbetting-ag-payouts/