I’ve never read anything of yours that reads like that, and I would never have guessed you wrote it. That’s neither good nor bad. Just an observation. I am curious as to what inspired it, as I had no idea you knew so much about horse racing. I personally know nothing about it.

Not to sound facetious, but the narrator reminds me of ‘Leave it to Beaver’ clips that I’ve seen on Me TV. The story has an authentic feel all be it tangential and meandering. It’s the way a kid about 10 years old would tell a story, for sure… but I do kind of get lost in the traffic and travel. I had a sense the ending would be tragic.

As someone unfamiliar with the interior goings-on of racehorse betting, I never fully grasped what the ‘old man’ was up to with his business ventures, but by the end of the story, I gathered he wasn’t always above board. That’s how things go.

Above all, it was fascinating reading this piece with the realization you wrote it. Very different. I like it, though.