Uncle Michael & the horses at Saratoga

I went up for a little mid-week jaunt to Saratoga to drop in on a legendary party my Uncle Michael throws every year at the race track. He has forgotten more about horse racing than most people will ever know, he actually founded (and divested) a horse handicapping website called WiredFigs.com. He argues that a lot of the highest percentage bets at the track are too expensive for an individual to make, but if you form a syndicate, you can make these bets and have a lot of fun in the process.

So he gets a group of 20-30 people together, every year, and we all put $100 in a pot for him to manage. He writes these relatively complicated bets on a chalkboard, and we get to the track early to secure a prime location (just outside the track, in front of a jumbo-tron).

It's a lot of fun to have a huge group all rooting for the same outcome. It feels a lot like a hot craps table. It helps that my Uncle knows what he's doing and the group nearly always finishes a good bit ahead (we sure did this year). It also helps that my Uncle knows everyone who ever lived or worked in the area, and they're all dying to say hi to him. He has moved to Florida and they can only see him a few times a year these days.

Some other fun facts about the weekend:

• A long time ago, my uncle befriended this ex-jockey named Louiola. This guy has unbelievable stories. He has worked at the track for 42 years, and was a jockey for 21 years before that. He currently manages the area where the horse owners keep their jockeys' silks. He took me on a tour of the jockey's area, which is roped off to the public. So cool.
• We went to dinner at a restaurant located across the street from the home in which my mother and uncles grew up, in South Glens Falls, NY. What I learned on this trip is that the area was the setting of one of the earliest American novels, The Last of the Mohicans (Book, DVD), and that the cave behind the waterfall (from a famous scene in the story) is about 200 yards from the restaurant and my mom's old house. So cool.

Here's all of the link to the full set of pictures I took on the trip.