Betting on the Ponies!

 NOVEMBER 09, 2021

Kira D. Foltz, horse racing photo, 10 May 2015, Santa Anita Racetrack, California.

Week 42: Sports

In my family, I never really heard much about sporting events or games growing up. Football, basketball, soccer, hockey, or any of those other traditional team activities were not celebrated by any of my close relatives aside from the occasional football game on TV leading up to Thanksgiving dinner. Even then, no one was really paying much attention. It was mostly just background noise.

We also never made it a point to watch the Super Bowl or March Madness. Although, my grandmother, Edna, was a HUGE fan of baseball, specifically the Dodgers! Perhaps she was the only one to inherit the sports gene. Her grandfather, John Alexander Dean, Jr., cared for and raced horses back in West Virginia in the early 1900s!

Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, Wheeling, West Virginia, 19 September 1900, p. 2.

Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, Wheeling, West Virginia, 19 September 1900, p. 8.

Wheeling Intelligencer, Wheeling, West Virginia, 19 September 1907, p. 10.

Wheeling Intelligencer, Wheeling, West Virginia, 26 August 1905, p. 7.

I have also taken a relaxed interest in horse racing over the years, having visited the Santa Anita Racetrack a few times and satisfying my gambling itch. I’d never get involved in that industry or even become a frequent better on horses, but it’s certainly a sport that tickles my fancy a heck of a lot more than playing with a ball.

Wheeling Intelligencer, Wheeling, West Virginia, 13 June 1925, p. 2.