Yesterday while helping a customer I learned that he grew up near Los Alimitos. When I asked him if he went to the horse races he got a big smile on his face and said, “Oh Yeah!”. He’s been involved with horse racing for over 40 years and is currently working as a starter at Cal Expo here in Sacramento. He invited us down to the track last night so we took him up on his offer.

When we arrived at the track I asked for him and we were taken down to the track near the paddock where the jockeys and horses got prepped for the races. My customer greeted us and invited us to ride along in the starter car.

Harness Racing starts out differently than normal horse races. Due to the carriages that are being pulled they aren’t able to start in the normal gates. There is a modified Town Car that has a big gate attached to the back end and the horses will actually jog up to the car while it’s moving and get lined up for the start of the race. Once the car reaches a certain speed and all the horses are lined up a lever is pulled and the gate retracts from in front of the horses and they are free to start racing. It was a lot of fun being in the car and watching from so close. We circled the entire track watching the race from just a few feet away from the horses. Victoria really got excited watching the horses huff and puff to the finish line.

We stayed around for a few more races and even placed a couple of small bets. We didn’t win, but it was a fun night at the track. We’ll have to go back again during the summer when the more traditional horse racing takes place.