Hi, I worked near Buk at Hollywood Park racetrack

[lora]

Hi, I just found this site and just wanted to say hello to all the Bukowski fans here and let you all know I had frequent Bukowski sightings when I was younger and was a ticket girl at Hollywood park in the late 80s early 90's. I was usually a stones throw from Bukowski whenever I worked the clubhouse spot. He was very quiet..but I swear, I'll never forget his piercing eyes. I'm telling you people, a Bukowski split second stare has haunted me for 25 years!

Here's another thing, Buks horse racing system DOES work! A group of us at the track used it for years and we would have some killer wins! ...I have some hints on it if anyone wants to know more..

 

[blaze]

Hi,
lora, good to see the racing system worked !
Hello all Buk fans, I'm a fan and i just found this site. I'm a postal worker and one of the 1st books by Bukowski i read was "post office",
since then, read a lot more.

blaze

 

[Oyster]

Buks horse racing system DOES work! A group of us at the track used it for years and we would have some killer wins! ...I have some hints on it if anyone wants to know more..

Can I get a hint? And does he ever go over his system in any of his works?

 

[Purple Stickpin]

The work in which he discusses his system most prominently is Horsemeat (a particular favorite of mine, which is not typical 'round these parts), which, if you don't feel like spending $1,500-$2,000+, also appears in the readily-available 1984 publication War All The Time. Mainly, he explains what not to do based on the masses of humanity around him, but he does offer a cryptic remark:

"...the new theory
(Formula K) enacts itself:
M plus S plus C plus O
(brought down to
the relative power of
1/4 each): and the horse with the
lowest total is
the winner."

In other words, yes, he most certainly does discuss his system, but in a manner that tells you to go pound sand.

 

[Oyster]

Thanks! My favorite poems are the ones from the track. I will have to track down a copy. I know there have been some issues with editing, was there anything changed from Horsemeat to War all the Time?

 

[Purple Stickpin]

I believe that the 20-part poem/story that is Horsemeat made it intact into War All The Time.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Thanks! My favorite poems are the ones from the track.

When he's writing about the misfits and subhumanes at the track, I might agree. But he didn't do enough of those, in my opinion. If Abel does a book on "Horses and Bukowski" I might have to protest. I get that he was infatuated with it, but for the majority of Buk readers, it's... Ok, I'll say it, fucking boring as horse shit.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Yes; Space Creatures is a great poem. I lobbied Abel hard to get that one into Essential Bukowski but he opted against it.

 

[pauldakiwi]

I've been a regular horseplayer for more than 50 years. I count myself obsessed with the Bukowski racetrack poems. The best of them "get" the track in a way that the once-in-a-blue-moon track attendee may indeed find boring, but if you're a horseplayer, you know Bukowski tells some truths. If you've ever been to Belmont Park on a big race day (admittedly, less and less likely in these days of declining attendance) when the infrastructure is overwhelmed, the lines long, the horseplayers impatient, then a poem like "Eleven" will make you laugh out loud. How is it that the incredibly vulgar and funny "The 9 Horse" has never been published (it is on the Hostage recording)? As he says at the ending of the unpublished "If You Don't Know Where It's At, Stay Where You Are" [5-10-1980]: "people who don't go to the racetrack/don't know anything."

 

[zobraks]

How is it that the incredibly vulgar and funny "The 9 Horse" has never been published (it is on the Hostage recording)?

It's been published in Back to the Machinegun: Manuscripts, Volume 3.

 

[Rekrab]

Back in the 70s and 80s I had a friend who was a serious gambler and went to the race track several times a week. He was a Bukowski fan, and several times ran into Buk, at Hollywood Park, I think. I went with him a few times (I'm no gambler), but we didn't see Bukowski on those occasions. Anyway, my friend says Buk was totally focused on the race and didn't have any interest in talking to fans, although he was polite about it. Just thought I'd share that for what it's worth.