It’s a sunny day, and I’m at the track for an exciting afternoon of horse racing. The first race of the day has drawn six horses, with Silly Me favored at 2-1 and Practical Pam the second choice at 4-1. As the horses get ready to run, I ponder my wagering strategy. Having a free bankroll of $500 to work with (more on that in a moment), I decide to spend it all on the first race – I bet $500 to show on Practical Pam.

They’re off! Practical Pam breaks quickly and goes straight to the lead, with Silly Me also showing speed. Coming down to the wire, Practical Pam maintains her advantage and wins narrowly over Silly Me, and my bankroll is up by $225, though like any bettor I’m now lamenting the fact that I bet to show instead of to win.

The second race of the day presents a huge opportunity for clever bettors. With another six-horse field, Rattle Trap is favored at 3-1, but all of the other starters are at least 8-1 or higher. When I look at the form of the horses, I’m intrigued by the 18-1 longshot Apache Pride. He’s won 12 races, more than any of his rivals, and has won more money as well. Having little else to go on (the program is rather vague), I bet $500 to win, knowing I’m getting good value on the most accomplished horse in the race.

Unfortunately, a slow start leaves Apache Pride with too much to do. As they come down to the wire, it appears that Apache Pride will finish third – not that it matters for my win bet – but right before the finish line, the jockey falls off. For absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Fortunately, I know that both horse and rider will be fine, because I’m not at a real racetrack and I’m not watching a real race. I’m actually sitting in front of a computer and playing an old game called “Race the Nags.”

You’re forgiven if you’ve never heard of this delightful racing game – after all, it turned 25 years old this year, and the version I’m playing (version 1.2s, per the bright-blue start screen) is from 1992. The game, created by Richard A. Olsen and distributed by SofSource, describes itself as “an elegantly simple, horribly addictive horse racing game.”

At its core, Race the Nags is indeed very simple. Every race contains six horses, and perhaps they’re not even Thoroughbreds, since every horse is a different color, ranging from classic colors like black and gray to more unusual colors like white with black spots, black with gray spots, and yellow – perhaps a form of palomino? During each race, the six horses sprint down a straight track, politely staying in their own lanes like track stars competing in a 100-meter dash, straining for the finish line with their jockeys urging them on.

Speaking of the jockeys, they make you appreciate the extraordinary skills of the real jockeys that partake in our sport. The computer jockeys perform well for the most part, except when they fall off, which occurs with surprising frequency. One moment, they’re in the saddle, and the next moment, a pair of beeps emerge from the computer speakers and the jockey is on the ground with the horse standing next to him, seemingly wondering what went wrong.

Of course, the unpredictability of the jockeys adds another layer of intrigue to the main point of the game, which is wagering. At the start of the game, every player has $500 to wager however they choose… with a few restrictions. You can only bet to win, place, or show, and – here’s the key – you can only place one bet per race.

Even with these restrictions, the game is fun for anyone familiar with real-life pari-mutuel pools and the odds that result from such pools. There will be times when the game presents you with a race where the odds on every horse are 7-1 or higher, and since randomly betting any horse to win should give you a 1-in-6 chance at winning, you’re basically in a no-lose situation over the long run. I’ve played this game many times, and as far as I can tell the results of each race are pretty random, which means that as long as you keep betting small amounts on horses that are 7-1 or higher, it’s pretty hard to lose.

Of course, this means that massive win streaks can be compiled over time. The game includes a “millionaires club” (essentially the high score list) that lists the players who have increased their bankroll to more than a million dollars. I check the all-time record on the game I’m playing, and the high score is $21 million. If only betting at real tracks were this easy!

The race records of each horse are another fun element of the game. They’re far from being as in-depth as real past performances, but they do list the record for each horse in the race, including the number of times they’ve raced, the number of times they’ve finished first, second, or third, their overall win percentage, and the amount of money they’ve “earned.” These records are updated every time a horse competes in the game, and the amount of money they’ve earned is actually the amount of money that players have won while betting on them. In one race, I bring up the statistics and see that a horse named Lounge Lizard has rewarded his backers with an astonishing $18,196,160 – not bad at all!

All told, there are more than 200 horses in the game, though even this number isn’t enough to prevent horses from showing up multiple times in the same day. I play for a while longer, and in the fourth race, Apache Pride is running again, clearly no worse for wear after losing his jockey in the second race. Since he’s 11-1, I bet my entire bankroll on him to show, and although his task is made easier when Slight of Hand loses his rider immediately after the start, Apache Pride can only manage a fourth-place finish. Perhaps he’s tired out from running two races in the same day, or perhaps he just wasn’t good enough to beat this field. Or maybe – probably – the results were simply random.

In any case, my bankroll is down to $0.00, but it doesn’t matter. In the world of Race the Nags, another day and another race is just around the corner!