The First Time

I have a confession, yesterday was the first time I've ever been to a racetrack.  Yes, even though there are several close to where I live, in my short 22 years I have never been to a racetrack before.  My Dad could not decide what he wanted to do for Father's Day, even though I had been asking for days, but I wanted to get out and do something fun to celebrate the day.  When I woke up he told me he decided that he wanted to take us to Monmouth Park Racetrack to watch the horses with a friend of his who knows the track very well.  Since I had never been before I was pumped to go.   

My Dad's friend taught my sister and I all about betting on the horses, but it made no sense to me (I'm still confused about what he was saying).  He told us since we were first timers that we needed to bet based on three things: colors, names, and numbers, which I liked.  To be honest I'm not big on gambling, but my Dad gave us money so we had a little fun.

My sister and I had a blast watching the different horses and goofing off.  The whole atmosphere was great and very lively.  Apparently it's not usually this busy, but I liked the crowds, I feel like it made it even more exciting.  As you can see from the pictures my sister and I got dressed up and wore big sun hats, which we loved.  We were able to get some cool pictures and I'm going to do a post later in the week with all my outfit details.

After we watched two races we went to watch the horses being prepped and this is where we picked who we would bet on.  I liked this best because I could see the horses up close, and what colors they were wearing.  Of course I picked the horse that had pink on, it was a very pretty horse (from my limited experience) and it's name was Dear John (I loved that movie) so I decided it was a good pick.

My Dad's friend and I went in on a bet; I had beginner's luck and we won!  I'm not a competitive person so I was caught up in the race as a whole (also known as not watching my horse).  Halfway through my sister's horse was in third and she was making fun of me because mine was toward the back, needless to say when mine came in first (and her's didn't place just saying...) I was very excited!  My Dad also won on one of the bets he placed so I was excited for him as well.  The picture below is with the winning ticket, I'm bummed that it didn't come out better, but the lighting was bad where we were standing because we were in the shade.

I think my Dad had a good Father's Day and I'm glad we got to celebrate and have such a good day together.  I had such a fun time and definitely will be going back to the track this summer.  I told my Dad that he has to take me back for lunch one day at one of the restaurants because I liked it so much!  

How was your weekend?  Did you do anything fun for the holiday?

  

                

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