Do you know those days where you feel lucky, and just have to do something about it? Well today was Melbourne Cup day, and I felt like I could be the luckiest man in the country, and thus this fuck up begins. For those who don't live in the lovely land danger that is Australia, once a year we have a horse race that 'stops the nation'. Ever since I was younger, this race would be the talk of the day, even being pulled out of class in school to sit in front of a TV to watch it, mostly so the teachers could see if they'd won.

Being 22 years old, I decided this year that I was adult enough to bet on a horse, and with my inner fire of luck, I knew I was going to win. I messaged my brother-in-law, an avid gambler, but also someone who knows what he's talking about, and asked him if he had any tips. He gave me three numbers, 9, 17, 23. I went on break at work, and searched the horses on Google. Now the way this website had set it up this list was as follows:

1. Horsename (6)

2. Anotherhorse (15)

I looked at this list over and over, and me, an intellectual, became perplexed, wondering which number was the horse number. A coworker sees me looking like I'm smelling vinegar, and asks what's wrong. I tell him my plans, show him the page, and the true fuck up of this story, asked for his help.

'The horse number is in the brackets, and the number at the front is the gate number.'

When I got home from work, I looked over my options of 9, 17,and 23 over and over again. I finally decided on number 9, feeling like this could be my lucky break, but of course, disaster strikes early. All of the competent betting apps in Australia were down, because not only do we have the most dangerous spiders, but we also can't avoid a fucking server overload when more than 5 people want to use the same app.

After an hour of opening and closing the app, persisting through the trudges of slow loading times, slowly growing more and more impatient, I had finally done it. $20 on horse number 9. My victory was nearing, I could feel it. I turn the TV onto Channel 7, and begin to watch. All the horses are getting ready to race, and I'm excited, slightly shaking. The commentator mentions that my horse was 'sweating excessively', but I shook this off, obviously the horse was nervous, who wouldn't be. Once again, an intellectual. The horses lined at the gate, they get ready, and they're off!

Fast forward three minutes, and I've worked out my complete idiocy. I had the horse number and the gate number swapped the wrong way around. The winning horses in order? 23, 9, 17. I couldn't believe it. I worked out that if I had bet correctly, I would have won back $200, instead, I had lost $20.

But TheifSyn? What happened to your horse, what did it place? It didn't. No, the horse I chose, not only didn't place, but had to be put down on the track. Like my hope for a good day, the horse I had bet was dead. Dearest Reddit, luck was not with me today, it was against me.

TL;DR: I had a good tip on bets for a horse race, but got the horse number and gate number mixed up. The horse I would have chose came second, the horse I did choose died.

EDIT: Of course my top post is due to my ignorance and bad luck, should have seen that coming. I just wanted to write something to clear some stuff up. This post is not about how I lost $20 at the races. The money is insignificant to me. I do not condone horse racing, but I also do not hold it in disdain. I know the losses that the horse racing community has experienced are terrible, and I don't think it's made serious enough, but at the same time, a day where people come together with similar interests and goals, to have some fun and relax is important in our day and age. I got caught up in the flair of it all, and tried something different that I don't think I'll be trying again. I do feel for the horse, any loss of life is horrendous, no matter what conditions. I am a flawed human being, I'm not trying to hide that. It's spelled out within the story, I know who I am (a child parading as a 22 year old). The reason I decided to post this small segment of my life to this subreddit, was so that people could have a chuckle at my expense. To see how everything that could have gone so right, went so wrong. I appreciate the civil discussion, and there have been a lot of points made by both sides that are astounding, but I just wanted to clear up the idea I'm portraying. Thanks.