Manor Downs

Its nice to go kick back drink a cold one and have the best burger in town. Oh yeah and play the ponies.

I have been to several racetracks around Texas but can’t really say I am a huge horse racing aficionado. That being said I love going. Roll in with a group of friends, make a minimum bet on each race, enjoy a few drinks and you’ll have a great time for not that much cash. Manor Downs is a great, laid back venue and you can’t beat how close it is to Austin proper. I definitely recommend an evening out with some friends.

Resist the temptation to stop at the Flea Market and keep going to Manor Downs.
You gotta go. You gotta go for the experience. It’s cheap fun. (Well, could be cheap, depending on how keen your betting skills are). I’ve never been to any races previously, so I have no comparissons. But I love small towns. I love Americana. I love small town Americana. This is it, my friends.
The seats are like leftovers from a junior high football stadium. The bugler does not love his job, but he plays well, even a little impromtu playing stuck in there. The people there are serious about their horses. I saw grown men in wranglers and cowboy hats dancing. Like leaping dancing. Across the field.
Pay the extra $ 2 and park in the «Preferred Parking» area.
Pay the extra $ 3 and sit in the box seats. If you’re in the box seats, you pretty much don’t have to get up, except to cheer the horses on. The guy comes to you to take your bets. He was as helpful as time allowed for. And your food is delievered to you – in chaffing dishes!
Pay the extra bucks for the brochure. You’ll need it to help you with your bets. I did. And I won $ 6 one time and two-​eighty the next. That’s two dollars and eighty cents, people!
Check it out.
You just might be so lucky.

There’s not much in life that prepares you for the Manor Downs experience, or at least the one I had yesterday: piled onto a heaving bus, paraded out twelve miles outside of town over what appeared to be the road to Jonestown, ‘mint’ juleps out of some sort of tub, my buddy in a seersucker suit especially for the Run for the Roses, or, moreover, a chance to bet on the Derby via Manor Downs.
You know the pageantry you witness if you watch the actual live event in Louisville? Didja see the Queen of England in the stands? Well, Manor Downs is a ‘skosh’ different. Trapped amongst the scrub-​brush of metropolitan Manor, this track is what I might refer to as a remedial racing experience: the stands themselves seem to have been regurgitated onto some sort of blacktop, the infield is in ill-​repair, the scenery (if you don’t count the many David Lynch-​worthy characters I encountered in our brief stay), primarily consisting of something in need of a desperate mow.
A couple of notes in their defense: pretty much everyone we met was as sweet as they could be, and the proximity of the track does make it possible to get out and place a bet on the Triple Crown races that happen this time of year, even if, like me, you have only a vague notion of what it is, exactly, that you’re doing. And I haven’t hit this track on a Manor Downs race day: I’d expect those would be somewhat different, as they would engage actual live horses on the dirt right in front of you.
But on the afternoon of the Kentucky Derby (or any major race)? Manor Downs might not be my first recommendation for the horse racing backdrop. And the winners you most likely see will be on the screen, at another track far, far away.