An Addiction Born

As it happens with most addictions, this is a tale of a kindly soul who was tempted by peer pressure and a desire to just fit in.

There I was in the Deeproute.com chat room, working on building a football powerhouse. I became aware of a conversation taking place between kingab and scoobie in which they were discussing their “stables” and some upcoming race. I listened a bit … wondering what in the world this horse game could entail.

My own experience with horse racing was limited. While I live within a stone’s throw of Saratoga, NY, I had only ever been to the track once, and that was close to 18 years ago. On that day my friends and I pretended to know how to handicap a race, and promptly lost every bet we placed. A young lady who had come along decided after 5 or 6 races that she loved the name of a horse, “Trumpet” something or other, because she played the trumpet. Horse had 60/1 odds, so we “men” who knew so much tried to talk her out of the bet. She insisted, and plunked down a $10.00 bet to win. I fear running into her still to this day, because she never did let us live that down. The three of us “men” pouting on the ride home, while she counted her newly won $600.00.

Anyhow back to the semi-present. So after listening to these two “pros” talk about this horse game, I figure what the heck. I can beat them at football, well then I can sure as hell beat them at horses as well. So I hop over to Derbyfever.com and sign up! Sad to say it took me a bit to realize I needed to choose horses before the stable would become active. I don’t do directions well, just ask my wife on Christmas morning when I am trying to put the kids toys together.

Choosing horses however was something I was sure I could handle. After all I have heard of a few horses … heck they made a movie about one not so long ago right? What was that called … oh yeah I remember! Hidalgo! Damn fine movie. Wait, where was I? Oh yeah, choosing horses. So after spending a considerable amount of time looking for sure fire winners from the pool, I enter my ten selections and the wait is on.

When my stable finally activated, I was absolutely ecstatic. A better group of horses clearly could not be found anywhere. Now to enter these equine gods and goddesses into some races, and my reign of dominance in Derbyfever.com would commence. As it was stated before, I dislike directions and figured I could hash it out. How wrong I was. So I enlisted the help of kingab, and begged assistance. Just a quick tutorial to get the basic navigation and I would be ready to rock. Also it would give me the chance to show off my kickass stable.

Needless to say when kingab (aka Larry) got an eyeful of my amazing stable, he laughed with joy. Okay joy might not be the right word. Honestly I became concerned when he started wheezing and turning red. When he could breathe again, he stuttered these words; “that is the sorriest group of ill bred manure haulers I have ever seen.”! One would think I could be crushed after that statement. Not me, because clearly he wanted my ponies for himself. But I needed to learn, so I played along, possum like, waiting to ambush him when he tried to steal my horses.

Win, lose or draw the addiction began on my first race day. There was not a lot of winning, not much drawing either. The losing I did well and with gusto! While I maintained only one stable for about 6 months, a lot of that was because of an asinine decision to return to coaching football at the Pop Warner level, overtime at work, and studying for a group of promotional tests at work. About two months ago I started paying more attention to my stable, and in general my two beautiful 2 year olds that have to be credited to kingab taking mercy on my sorry excuse for a stable. In the last two months my desire to learn all things horses has grown. Currently with 6 stables, I find I have to fight the urge to start more (clear signs of addiction).

As I have been frequenting the chat room, I
have found additional “dealers” – all ready to feed my brain with more equine knowledge. As a new member of the Empire State Racing residency, I find myself drawn even deeper into the dark underbelly that is DerbyStakes. Alas I would not be a good addict if I didn’t drag friend and family into the pits of hell with me. As of this writing I have a neighbor, two co-workers, and my brother-in-law is current considering all starting stables.

In all seriousness, I can admit I am “hooked”, but everyone has been fantastic about helping a true newbie to the horse world learn & survive in the game. Without the likes of kingab, and so many others in the chat room I would have had a hard time surviving (would try to name them all, but afraid I would leave someone out).

Yours truly,
The Addict (aka jetman)