Half a Ton of Majestic Energy

By Nathan Bernstein

Half a Ton of Majestic Energy is a fictional account of the everyday activity and breathtaking drama that occurs at the many thoroughbred racetracks. "Suspense." That is the one word that describes a day at the racetrack.   

    

"Riders up!" The bugler's call to the post. The Post Parade featuring the aristocratic half-ton animals and their colorfully-garbed courageous jockeys.    

 

"They're off!" Then the homestretch finale voiced by the excited track announcer; followed by ear-deafening suspense as the finish line is approached. Then the tote board results for the anxious betting public.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jun 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9781647506025

Nathan Bernstein

Nathan Bernstein and his wife, Rita, are resident natives of Chicago. The author holds a BSC in Marketing from Roosevelt University; his BA in Studio Art and MA in History were awarded by Northeastern Illinois University. A sports enthusiast, Nathan Bernstein was Art Director for five years for a major sports publisher. He also played utility infield in junior college and attended eight Randy Hundley baseball fantasy camps. For the last twenty years Nathan Bernstein has been an owner and breeder of thoroughbred race horses. Venues are Hawthorne and Arlington race tracks, and the former Sportsman’s Park. *** Cover photo courtesy of Four Footed Fotos. The author’s filly Ima Little Kitten is shown winning a Maiden Special Weight race at Arlington in 2016. Jockey Jose Valdivia, Jr. is aboard.

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About the Author

Nathan Bernstein and his wife, Rita, are resident natives of Chicago. The author holds a BSC in Marketing from Roosevelt University; his BA in Studio Art and MA in History were awarded by Northeastern Illinois University. A sports enthusiast, Nathan Bernstein was Art Director for five years for a major sports publisher. He also played utility infield in junior college and attended eight Randy Hundley baseball fantasy camps.

For the last twenty years Nathan Bernstein has been an owner and breeder of thoroughbred race horses. Venues are Hawthorne and Arlington race tracks, and the former Sportsman’s Park.

***

Cover photo courtesy of Four Footed Fotos.

The author’s filly Ima Little Kitten is shown winning a Maiden Special Weight race at Arlington in 2016. Jockey Jose Valdivia, Jr. is aboard.

Dedication

This novel is dedicated to:

My trainer for twenty years: ex-jockey Ricky Lindsay

The owner/manager of Lady View Farm, Orangeville, Illinois: Dennis Crooks, a US Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam

The late Thomas Walsh, my USAF crewmate

The late Sydney Ponti, USAF career non-com

My brother Lewis Bernstein (July 8 1930 – June 5 2020), US Army Korean War veteran.

Copyright Information ©

Nathan Bernstein 2022

Copyright © Four Footed Fotos for cover photo

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Ordering Information

Quantity sales: Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Bernstein, Nathan.

Half a Ton of Majestic Energy

ISBN 9781647506018 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781647506025 (ePub e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022904888

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published 2022

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 33rd Floor, Suite 3302

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

[phone]

Chapter 1

When are you going to buy that racehorse, Nick?, jested Ike Handler the proprietor of a baseball memorabilia shop in Skokie, Illinois. When you win the lotto?

Nick Buttall’s favorite sport had been baseball, and each Thursday, Nick and three other retirees, plus Ike, gathered around a table in Ike’s store to discuss baseball history and the current condition of America’s favorite sport.

But this is late autumn of 1994 and, all because of a strike, the World Series is canceled. What’s more, Nick’s beloved White Sox are leading their division with only a month remaining in the season. Nick and all the other White Sox fans are looking forward to the end of the team’s 35-year Series drought. Wouldn’t it be great if the Pale Hose met the Montreal Expos in the 1994 World Series?

The whole thing is disgusting. Nick even wrote a letter to the Commissioner urging a late Series in November, to be held in a hospitable climate should the home team be from a frigid geographical area without a roofed stadium. Bud Selig replied via a full-page letter of explanation. Nick’s other letters to some team owners also resulted in sympathetic replies.

A loyal fan and not a quitter, a perchance happening resulted in Nick changing his favorite sport to horseracing.

****

Nick’s wife, Mildred, a decade his junior at 52, had been an Associate Professor of Literature in the Chicago Junior College system; she became a full-time housewife two years ago. She plans to someday author her first novel, a crime mystery.

Mildred is an avid reader. She regularly checks out about five books at a time from the Chicago Public Library. Obligingly, Nick often returned all of these at one time after Mildred had perused them. Buy me a wheelbarrow for our anniversary, said Nick half-seriously. A guy could get a double hernia lugging all these books to the check-in counter.

During the winter following the baseball strike, Nick is on one of his missions to the library. He non-chalantly browses the bookshelves. A book entitled Handicapping Profitably at the Racetrack catches Nick’s attention. Leafing through the book catches Nick’s deep interest.

Next stop: the check-out counter.

Chapter 2

It is a blustery day in the Windy City on a Sunday in early January. The thermometer is set at a comfortable 73 degrees as Nick relaxes in his Easy-boy chair. Handicapping Profitably at the Racetrack is now the center of attention.

The author, using a nom de plume to avoid IRS attention, detailed how his method almost always resulted in a profit. His detailed tabulations at various tracks, performed as an example for his readers, resulted in success 95% of the time.

The author listed the very fast tracks and the necessary adjustments to his computations; the very slow tracks were also listed, with the necessary adjustments. The book contained a chart listing a standard of 6 furlongs converted to other distances, e.g., 5-1/2 furlongs, 7 furlongs, etc. Gains in lengths were calculated as gains in fifths of seconds (these gains were called ticks). The author assigned points to gains-in-time using a clever point system chart.

Fortunately for Nick, the three Chicago area tracks provided detailed data on race results in their programs, including ticks per second. Such tracks as Santa Anita and Canterbury issued programs anemic in data. But an investment in a racing form newspaper included all of the necessary data needed by the handicapper to calculate.

Nick, a USAF