Every race day an unorganized card game breaks out in the kitchen by mid morning. Sometimes there are two games. They mostly play Gin, but pert' near always it's gonna be some conception of a meld game. Oh, you wanna know which track? Doesn't matter. They played Gin at Fairmount Park in the 80s. I dropped a couple Lincolns to some eager grooms in a three handed pinochle game at Pimlico better than a decade ago, but only because they were playing for lower stakes than the horsemen at the rummy tables.
Gin was by far the dominate game at every track in Chile and Argentina. I did catch some riders playing hearts at the track in Rio. Euchre was popular with the jocks in northern England and I've seen a hand or two of point-trick games played on at least one backstretch in every hemisphere. Even so, I've never seen so much as one game of bridge. Rio or Saigon or Berkeley, Calif, you have to remember: These are hard men living hard lives. They know the risks, they want action, and have no use for a rubber.
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