Daytime TV anchor and a day at Colonial Downs

 Yesterday, when we played golf, I asked one of the young men what he did for a living and he looked at me kinda funny and said in a rather low voice " I am a TV anchorman on channel 6 out or Richmond". He was unassuming and a delightful young man. I then asked the other man what he did and he said the he owned a closed caption TV company, again unassuming and a nice young man. We tuned in this morning and sure enough there was our golf partner.

 

 

 



 

 

Neither one of us have ever been to a "Harness race" and our schedule allowed us to go today.

 

 

Since it was midweek and the season is winding down we had our choice of where to sit, this picture was taken from the general seating in the covered area. 

 

I had a million questions and I could not find any one that was knowledgeable until I walked down to the track and approached a man who had an official looking badge and he looked to be of an age he would be truthful and not treat me like I was an idiot. Sure enough, he was really in the know, he was the engineer that developed the track in the 90's, he was the executive manager of the track until 2009. Then the race horse association asked him to be the Executive Director of the Virginia Harness Horse Association. He answered all of our questions and asked us if we would like to take a ride in the "starter truck", and we couldn't say yes fast enough.

 

This truck is manned by 2 men-one driving and watching the horses and one man that rides in the back seat facing the horses.  The truck has gates that open and are used for a running start for the horses. The horses nose up to the gate and when the race officially starts the driver of the truck will speed up and close the gates. The ride in that truck was one of the  high lights of our trip. One race I sat in the top with the man that was facing backward and Ron sat in the cab with the driver and then we switched the next race. What a thrill!!!!

 

The view from the top looking backward at the watering truck.

 

One of the horses that was in the process of getting his nose on the starting gate.

 

 More of the horses getting ready to nose up to the starting gate

 

The race has started and the truck is pulling away. 

 

View from the side of the truck-looking thru the closed gait. 

 

Here we are in the winners circle. 

 

Virginia has treated us well, playing golf with a TV celebrity one day and going in the starter truck the next day!!