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How to Make Your Own Racetrack Games

Horse racing is a gambling past time where individuals visit the race track and make bets on the horses running. If a horse you bet on wins the race, you receive payment on your bet as reward for picking correctly. The Horse Track Game is a board game which seeks to replicate a day at the races from the comfort of your own home. Players receive cards for the horses in the race, and any owner of a card for the winning horse collects the pot.

Things You'll Need

Poster board
Ruler
Permanent marker
44 index cards (or 22 index cards cut in half for smaller cards)
7 tokens
2 dice
Box

Instructions

- 1
  Lightly draw an 11-inch-wide by 8-inch-tall grid, with 1 inch between each line of the grid, onto the poster board using pencil.
- 2
  Place four index cards on the poster board below the grid, then trace around the outside with pencil. For aesthetic appeal, space the cards evenly along the width of the grid.
- 3
  Trace over the left edge of the grid for the upper three rows, and the right edge of the upper three rows, using permanent marker.
- 4
  Trace over the left edge of the second-column-from-left's fourth row cell, and the right edge of the second-column-from-right's fourth row cell, with permanent marker. Repeat for the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth rows, moving the lines one cell over each time until the eighth row has the center cell with permanent marker on either side of it.
- 5
  Trace over all horizontal lines between the vertical permanent lines with permanent marker, then trace over any vertical lines between the new permanent horizontal lines. This creates a grid that begins with an 11-by-3 top, then narrows by two columns in each ensuing row. Erase any pencil marks from cells not included in the permanent marker grid. This is the race track for the horses.
- 6
  Write "12" in the upper left box of the grid, then "11" in the next grid, and so on until you have "2" in the upper right box of the grid.
- 7
  Trace over the pencil outlines of the index cards, then write "x1", "x2", "x3" and "x4" under the four outlines, respectively. This completes the game board.
- 8
  Write the number 12 on one side of an index card, then repeat on three more cards. Repeat the process with each number from 11 to two, creating four cards of each.
- 9
  Place the poster and index cards into a box, along with seven tokens and two dice. Tokens can be actual horse-shaped toys, or simply seven coins. If you wish to play with fake money, include poker chips or funny money, such as from a game like Monopoly, in the box as well. This completes your racetrack game box.

Board Games