Time to tell the story of HAPPY FAWN & Doc White. 😊

Doc was an amazing pool player & was originally from Norfolk, Virginia. He left there & was a road player for a number of years. Not staying too long in any one place. He eventually settled down in Los Angeles, California, where I was born & raised.

I worked in a pool room called Pete’s Family Billiards for about 5 years from 1974 to 1978 in Glendale, California. That is where I met Doc. He came in one night looking for action. Over time we became friends. For about three years we ran together & looked for action. Los Angeles is so big you could hit up a bar looking for action & not go back into it for months.

I moved to Las Vegas in February 1980. Doc moved here about 3 years later. He passed away in 2000.

Doc loved betting the horses! 🐎 You almost never saw him without a Daily Racing Form in his back pocket. The first thing he would do when he left the house for the day was go buy one. When he moved here to Las Vegas, you always knew where to find him if the ponies were running. That was the Union Plaza Downtown. I went there in 1998 to buy some casino chips. I wondered if Doc was there. 🤔 Sure enough I found him in the race book. 😆

So back to 1977. I use to go to Santa Anita quite a bit when the horses were running. It was only a 20 minute drive from where I lived in Eagle 🦅 Rock. One day I am there & so is Doc. We had not gone together though. By the 5th race, Doc taps out, he is busted & leaves. I make it to the 9th & final race. But I only have a single $100 bill left. 😖

I told myself I didn’t deserve to leave there with any money & decided to bet on the longest shot on the board. I scanned the Racing Form & that horse was HAPPY FAWN. I bet the $100 on her to win. The race starts & sure enough as they are coming around the turn, HAPPY FAWN is about 10 lengths back. As I am getting ready to turn around & head for the parking lot, the lead horse goes down. 😳 Then two horses behind him also go down. The other horses had to try & pull up. So there goes HAPPY FAWN leisurely trotting by them all to cross the finish line first. 😂 I couldn’t believe it.

I go cash my ticket for…$6,000! 🤑 I then head back to the pool room. Doc is there in the back sitting in a chair with his head down. Looking like his dog just died. As I approach him he looks up. Kind of nods his head & says no good, huh? I said well, not exactly, Doc. I then tell him the story. As I am telling it he is now sitting up a little straighter in his chair. Starting to show some life again. I of course knew what was coming. He was getting ready to put the bite on me for some money. 💵

I reached into my top pocket, where I had put $400 as soon as I got back to my car at Santa Anita. I give it to Doc & tell him it is not a loan, I am giving it to him. Now he is smiling from ear to ear. 😊

He immediately says…”Lets go find some action.” 🎱

Over the three years we ran together, I made quite a bit of money backing Doc. Those really were the good old days.

That is the story of HAPPY FAWN & Doc White.