A Perfect Racing Day

"George, you did not prepare for our group. You could have edited your Del Mar story earlier! Everyone at my North County Writer's Group got on my case. They were correct so I apologized.This is the story I had written about the Del Mar Meet in November.  A gentle on shore breeze gave me the pick up I sorely needed on this clear sunny day in November.  
   I drove to the Carlsbad commuter lot,  parked my car, and boarded the Breeze 101 coastal bus. Not too bad and it cost me only seventy five cents for a ride that dropped me out at the train station in Solana Beach after it had passed Leucadia and Encinitas  . With my good luck, a Breeze 101 going to La Jolla stopped at besides the train station and only seventy five cents was needed to board it. The bus passed Leucadia and then Encinitas before lumbering on to Solana Beach.
   Taking advantage of large waves, the surfers looked like small dots in the ocean. My station arrived and I crossed P.C.H. and made my way to one of the British Double Decker buses.  These buses I had first rode while in London in 1967. Clem and I stayed there with his grandma and aunt. 
  I took up a seat inside the grandstand and was in a state of euphoria all day. I was there for the pomp and stomp of these thoroughbreds.  Again I did not bet, just maybe one race, and read my clips for my football story. When the horses circled and turned for home, I looked at the fans. One better told his wife he had won the race.
     "Dear I won. I have a show ticket on number one!" Of course he really lost money since his horse to win came in last and his show ticket only produced $2.85 for his two dollar ticket. But he didn't seem to mine since he had a chance to cash a ticket."
    "Dear looks like you know how to bet. Who do you pick in the next race?"
   It amazed me that one winning ticket could make it a big-day for the family. I took the escalator downstairs to watch the grooms and trainers saddle their horses. I read the program to tell the name of the jockeys. The jockeys wore the colors or emblem of the owners. Each wore a grin while they ambled to the numbered spot where the owners had some last minute instruction. Each wore a smile on their face and gave the wives a  heavy hug. 
   On this perfect sunny day, I ambled downstairs to the finish line. The horses coming around the far turn for there to try to be first at the finish energized me. The once cloud of horses became only two as each tried to collar the other and tried to be first.   I left totally relaxed as the Double Decker returned me to the train station and a Coaster bus drove me back to Carlsbad where my car was waiting.
   But the day was not finished. I ordered a small artichoke pizza at the Pizza Palace on Carlsbad Village Blvd. and my day was complete. Each slice tasted out of this world.