Horse Racing Fantasy Community

This is a funny racing story. One of our members sent it in to me and said I could publish it but didn't want anyone to know who he was. We're going to call him Mr. X. Mr. X has been playing our game for about a month now. It was before the Breeders' Cup when a friend of his told him about it. Reluctant at first, Mr. X, who has never been a fan of computer games whether they involved horses or not, decided after numerous recommendations to give Horse Racing Fantasy a try. It didn't take long for Mr. X to get addicted. And with that addiction came many daily hours of excitement, thrills and, as he explained, the ultimate feeling of winning. "I really was starting to think I was the jockey and everyone in my house thought I was nuts."

Last weekend, Mr. X and his 15-year-old son got into some heavy racing action. They were playing the game in private mode making all types of win and exotic bets and playing for some serious stakes. If Mr. X won, his son would sweep the backyard every Saturday for the next month. If his son won, he would get pizza for the next four Friday nights in a row. Yep, we're talking about some serious stakes here. The contest was whoever could pick the most winners in 20 races. The catch was, not only did they have to pick the most winners, but neither one could pick the favorite that the computer generated for each race. Actually, a pretty neat contest.

Just before the contest began, Mr. X was asked by his wife to pick up her favorite outfit before the cleaners closed so she would have it available to wear for a dinner party they were attending the next night. Now, here's where the action really starts to pick up. You can run 20 races in a relatively short period of time, but Mr. X, who has run several hundred races already, had built up some significant past performance history on each horse. Both he and his son were pretty savvy at interpreting that past performance data and identifying true value.

The contest began and they ran neck-to-neck, head-to-head all the way through. In fact, according to Mr. X, after 15 races, they were tied at 4 winners apiece - a pretty solid win percentage overall if you ask me for both of them. It was at that time that they both decided they needed a little break because the stress of the competition was wearing them down. They stepped away from the computer screen and focused on some Saturday college football. After about an hour-and-a-half of R&R, father and son went back for the final 5 races. The air was thick and according to Mr. X you could cut it with a knife - the competition was serious. Both wanted to win and be top dog. Jr definitely didn't want to do any sweeping and Mr. X, well, let's just say that four weeks of pizza each Friday night wasn't really something he was looking forward to. (Though, I personally wouldn't mind, but what can I tell you - I grew up around pizza and hot dogs.)

After 19 races, they were tied at 5 wins apiece. The final race was in play. For over 30 minutes they analyzed the past performance data of each of the 9 contenders - back and forth, looking at every possible factor - weight, racing surface, speed. After those 30 minutes of intense evaluation, they both made their picks. The stakes were high, it was post time, the camera zoomed down and the race was off. The horses broke from the gate and from the word "go" (or should I say "they're off") both father and son were screaming at the top of their lungs.

Soon after the start of the race, Mrs. X walked in the door. She appeared to be a little concerned that both her husband and son were still at the computer on the kitchen table where she had left them 5 hours ago. As the horses raced up the backstretch, Mr. X's horse at 10:1 appeared to be in perfect striking position. It was right at that time when his wife asked, "Where is my dry cleaning?" Oh, shit, he forgot! Trying to pay attention to the race and at the same time trying to think of the one excuse that might prevent him from getting screamed at, Mr. X was at a loss for words and simply said, "I forgot." By now, the horses were entering the final turn. Mr. X's horse was sitting second on the outside, ready to explode with that final burst and bring him home that sweet victory and a clean backyard for the next four weeks. Just as Mr. X's horse was ready to explode, Mrs. X did explode. Their Dell laptop computer was picked up off the table and ejected out the kitchen window. Watch out down below, the horses were flying! Both Mr. X and his son were in shock. The crash of the computer below ended a potential sweet victory for Mr. X and wiped out his entire racing stable!

I can tell you that no one was physically hurt during the incident and since then, Mr. X bought a new laptop computer, which he keeps locked in his office out of his wife's hands. All of his virtual horses are safe and back in the barn. In fact, the ironic part about this story is that with a simple phone call to the dry cleaners, even though they had closed 30 minutes earlier, the owners were still in the store and Mrs. X was able to go pick up her favorite outfit, which cost about $900 to clean. For the next couple of days, father and son constructively argued about who the winner of the tournament was, both trying to make their points and justify why each believed they won. Jr stated that his horse was an absolute closer and off the fractions that were run, would have been flying in the stretch. Mr. X stands by his beliefs that his horse had the perfect trip and he was less than 30 seconds away from a sweet victory.

Things are okay again at the X household. This Saturday, the competition will be rerun. Both father and son, all week, have been running races to build up past performance lines on their horses prior to the rematch. And, Mrs. X, who apparently just had a bad day, promised to keep her hands off the computer and out of the competition. In fact, and I don't know how true this is, there's even a chance she'll be entering the competition herself next Saturday. May the best X win and may their horses AND the computer come home safely!

- espnsports