Last weekend I went to Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie to see some horse racing action - something I haven't done since that first summer when I moved here 3 years ago. This visit happened to be opening weekend for the 2011 Thoroughbred Season!
The front of the park is very pretty - this was out by the ring where they show the horses before each race.
And here we are on the track - right in front of the finish line, waiting for the first race.....
Track Condition: FAST (well I hope so!)....
Here's the view of the track from along the fence.....It's very wide for how many horses race - and they are all bunched together anyway....
Here they come - almost to the finish line!
This is the view from the track - up at the stands. You can get general admission tickets that are just for the outside seats on the bottom, or you can get box seats inside. And the top levels had chairs with computers at each one - for the SERIOUS betters.
Another close finish...
In between races - just hanging out...
This one was a photo finish - they had to replay it to see who won...
After each race, the horses just kind of mill around....
Look at this sweet little cowboy! Hat and boots!
There were 9 races that night - all were different lengths on the track, some were grass and some were dirt.....so they had to keep moving the mobile starting gates around based on how far from the stationary finish line they needed to be.
The starting gates are pulled by a truck and they just move it in between races, depending on the length of that particular race. So weird!
And there it goes! They drove it to the other side of the track....
I thought this shot was neat - it has the trumpeter (in red). He hung out back there and then headed out to the track to signal the start of the race.
This is the same area, but before it got dark. Before each race, they parade the horses around the circle so the betters can see them up close. The jockeys are also back there walking around. Very interesting!
Last weekend I went to Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie to see some horse racing action - something I haven't done since that first summer when I moved here 3 years ago. This visit happened to be opening weekend for the 2011 Thoroughbred Season!
The front of the park is very pretty - this was out by the ring where they show the horses before each race.
And here we are on the track - right in front of the finish line, waiting for the first race.....
Track Condition: FAST (well I hope so!)....
Here's the view of the track from along the fence.....It's very wide for how many horses race - and they are all bunched together anyway....
Here they come - almost to the finish line!
This is the view from the track - up at the stands. You can get general admission tickets that are just for the outside seats on the bottom, or you can get box seats inside. And the top levels had chairs with computers at each one - for the SERIOUS betters.
Another close finish...
In between races - just hanging out...
This one was a photo finish - they had to replay it to see who won...
After each race, the horses just kind of mill around....
Look at this sweet little cowboy! Hat and boots!
There were 9 races that night - all were different lengths on the track, some were grass and some were dirt.....so they had to keep moving the mobile starting gates around based on how far from the stationary finish line they needed to be.
The starting gates are pulled by a truck and they just move it in between races, depending on the length of that particular race. So weird!
And there it goes! They drove it to the other side of the track....
I thought this shot was neat - it has the trumpeter (in red). He hung out back there and then headed out to the track to signal the start of the race.
This is the same area, but before it got dark. Before each race, they parade the horses around the circle so the betters can see them up close. The jockeys are also back there walking around. Very interesting!
No comments:
Post a Comment