Horse Racing: An Education

A while back, my hubby received some free General Admission tickets to Lone Star Park-the horse racing track in Grand Prairie.  I had heard that Lone Star Park has some of the best fireworks in the metroplex, so it seemed liked the best time to use the tickets would be the 4th of July for their Lone Stars and Stripes Celebration.  We got there right at 5:00, just as the first race had started-we saw the horses cross the finish line just as we were walking towards some seats.


Maybe I should preface all this by saying I know nothing about horse racing.  Shy of what I have seen on the movie Secretariat, I am completely clueless.  Anyhow, we walked past the grassy section where many people had lawn chairs set up, and found some outdoor seating that was shaded (wonderful since it was probably 100 degrees) and right in front of the finish line.  Don't the boys look like they were having fun?

While we waited for the next race, we sent the boys to get some programs, so we would have an idea of what we were looking at.  Some really tall people sat down right in front of us, so my hubby suggested we move forward a few rows so we would still be able to see the races.  Once we moved, a park employee came and asked us for our tickets.  Apparently General Admission does not allow for seating at all.  Oops!  Rookie mistake, I am sure!  I guess that's why there were so many people with lawn chairs.  After realizing that the fireworks were not starting for another 4 hours, and the only "seating" available to us was in direct sunlight and sitting on the grass, we decided that we would leave Lone Star Park, and walk directly across the parking lot (no need to even move our car), and watch an Air Hogs baseball game instead.  We will come back sometime, but better educated about what to expect!


Before leaving the park, we did watch a complete horse race.  Here are the horses parading the front area before the race:

This is right after the race began.  If you look very closely, you can see the horses by the rear fenceline, just to the right of the cedar tree in the center of the picture. 

In this pic, the horses are rounding the corner-they look like little dots from this far away.

And here is the winner of the second heat, Dot to Dot, shortly before reaching the finish line.  Commanding lead-you can't even see any of the other horses in this picture.

And there go the rest of the horses chasing Dot to Dot.