COTV at the Del Mar Races 2013

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COTV Goes To the Races

The July Mystery Lunch Run was no mystery! An eager group of 24 cars headed out to the Club's annual “turf and surf” outing at Del Mar Racetrack. Led by Jim and Chris Estoch, who did their usual terrific job of making the arrangements, we drove through the back roads lined with beautiful homes from the 15 Freeway to Del Mar where we had the good fortune of parking our cars in the infield and setting up for our pot luck in the Pavilion. We get to the track pretty early in order to drive into the infield before the crowds arrive.

The group included a number of first-timers, along with those who had been to this event on a regular basis. Dan and Zana Easley, relatively new members, who have been attending every function since they moved from Tucson a couple of months ago, were at Del Mar for their first time and seemed to enjoy the camaraderie. Mike and Debbie Homan were on their first visit with the club and received advice on how to lose money from Jim and Diane. Curt and Darlena Stevens brought a long-time friend of Darlena's with her red convertible. Grace Stell was escorted by her grandson, Colin, as Charlie is on restricted "duty" due to some health issues. Colin seemed to get right into the spirit of things.

As always with the COTV, there was plenty of food. While we were organizing the buffet style lunch, Chris set up plenty of Starbucks coffee for the group and brought out the toasters for toast and jam, accompanied by Diane Sommars' ham and potato casserole, Judy McIntosh's beans and kielbasa and a couple of other hot dishes. We had a table full of snacks and appetizers, vegetable trays with every dip imaginable, guacamole and chips, fruit and deviled eggs (which disappeared into eager mouths within a few minutes of getting on the table). The main table had 10-15 salads, cold cuts and a great ham, with rolls to make your own sandwiches if you wanted to. The third table was for desserts – cake, Micha's Cajun brownies and very tasty lemon squares. There was also a huge container of “naked” popcorn, seasoned with just enough sea salt. Nobody waited for the “lunch hour” to arrive but just started sampling the food as soon as it was set out and kept on going back for more until the races were well underway.

Some of the more serious folks started checking out the race information early on and determined their bets for when the races started at 2pm. When the betting windows opened for the first race, all the heavy betting started. The table bets (a whopping $1 to get in) were set up, sometimes picking the horse by name or color of its livery. For many, winning a table bet was their success for the day. As we worked through the first several races, there was a lot of cheering and laughter as some won and some did not. Some won 10 cents on a race, some a little more. Some lost a whole $2, some a little more. All in fun – what COTV is all about!

After the fifth race at close to 5pm, a large group departed as it had already been a long day. Some had been up early to prepare their pot luck contribution and others had people to see and other places to go. Kathy from Del Mar, who had been Jim and Chris' contact, removed the stanchions surrounding the cars and the first group was led through the crowds by a security golf cart. Everyone revved their engines going through the tunnel. Cars split off to take various ways home and some saw each other again later on the freeway.

The remaining group stayed till the bitter end to make their bets and win enough to go to dinner at McDonald's .....if they were even hungry by then after all the food we had.