The colour of money

We were having dinner at my parents' home last night, and some time between the chicken soup and the apple strudel I mentioned that I was looking for turquoise things. My husband and children immediately rolled their eyes and sighed in unison. Colour Week has been most exciting and stimulating for me, but I must admit that I have been somewhat...umm...shall we say....OBSESSED with it. Possibly to the point of dementing my family (Mary - I use that verb ALL of the time now).

My parents, however, know little about my blogging and were politely interested. My father casually remarked that, perhaps, he might find me a horse with a turquoise theme. No, my daddy was not offering to buy me a blue pony, but rather to place a bet on a horse. Most Saturdays my father enjoys looking through "The Form" and betting on any horses that have the word "sea" in their name. He only bets on horses with "sea" in their name. That's just his thing, and he's made some money off it so who am I to question.


Well....with that suggestion...I was off!! I raced to grab "The Form" from the coffee table, only to discover gleefully that there were a lot of tiny pictures of satin jockey shirts with matching hats:

How adorable is that??!! There seemed to be a large number of turquoise outfits to choose from, but I could not find a horse whose name matched the outfit. Nothing felt quite right.

Then, I saw this little beauty:

My dad immediately circled it in red, because that is his betting habit. Not only was the horse called TURQUIA, but it was racing in the Blue Sapphire Stakes. The race's title even mentions JEEP, which is blackbird's pretty new car, and blackbird recently placed a bet on a horse most successfully.


My father nodded encouragingly, for he knows that betting is all about the FEEL OF THE NAME. He even pointed out that Turquia was horse number 7, and that there are 7 days in Colour Week.


So, today, my father placed his own bets and then placed my $16 each-way on Turquia. I listened to the race on the radio at 1.45pm while driving my daughter to her tennis comp.


Turquia came second!!!!!!!!!!!


It paid $2.50, so I can go tomorrow and collect $20. That means I won $4.


But I really have to split it 4 ways.