To honor my mother, Peggy Kostelnik, I once bet on a horse named Charming Peggy. That particular gesture of maternal homage did not pay off as, shortly after the starting bell, Charming Peggy’s hapless jockey fell off the horse.
Thereafter, I swore off placing my bets based on the horse’s name and stuck to more sophisticated influences like lucky numbers and pretty racing silks.
Last weekend, though, a horse name showed up in a racing form at Hialeah Park that inspired me to re-think my policy.
Dashing Molly B.
Ka-Ching!
We went big.
“$10 on Dashing Molly B to win,” my husband told his sister, Elaine, our on-site bookie.
At 6-1 odds, we were looking at bigger purse than we had seen in years. (Except the time we inadvertently swept the board at our friends’ Kentucky Derby party, but we don’t like to talk about that.)
The news came via text.
Dashing Molly B won!
A sly effort to parlay her niece’s blog name and her mother’s lucky number into a large purse nearly paid off Elaine, who bet on the No. 8 horse in the second race for a daily double.
Sadly, in that race Sir Zoom lost after a photo finish to Truck to Waves, though neither horse actually crossed the finish line first.
That honor went to Coronas Investment, whose jockey had fallen off.
Note: The following gorgeous photos come to us courtesy of my brother in-law Chip Bunnell. Check out his photography website !
