You either care or you don’t, but there are at least one, but even up to three Friday 13th in any year and today is, thankfully, our only one of 2021.
It has already started in a testing vein for punters with the Fairview meeting moving from the turf to the all-weather track.
That means a whole lot of scratchings, form guides are topsy turvy, and it just sets the platform for one or two bomb results.
But hey, maybe it’s all in the mind.
According to Kylie Sturgess of Murdoch University, Paraskevidekatriaphobia was coined by the psychotherapist Donald Dossey, a specialist in phobias, to describe an intense and irrational fear of the date.
There is zero science in it, but one study did show a small rise in accidents on that day for women drivers in Finland.
But much of the problem was due to anxiety rather than general bad luck. Follow-up research found no consistent evidence of a rise in accidents on the day, but suggested that if you’re superstitious, it might be better not get behind the wheel of a car on it anyway.
The stigma against Friday 13th likely comes from a merging of two different superstitions. In the Christian tradition, the death of Jesus took place on a Friday, following the presence of 13 people at the Last Supper.
In Teutonic legend, the god Loki appears at a dinner party seated for 12 gods, making him the outcast 13th at the table, leading to the death of another guest.
Elsewhere in the world, 13 is less unlucky.
In Hinduism, people fast to worship Lord Shiva and Parvati on Trayodashi, the 13th day in Hindu month. There are 13 Buddhas in the Shingon sect of Buddhism, and there is mention of a lucky 13 signs, rather than unlucky, in The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation.
In Italy, it is more likely to be ‘heptadecaphobia’, or fear of the number 17, that leads to a change of plans.
In Greece, Spain, and Mexico, the ‘unlucky’ day is not Friday 13th, but Tuesday 13th.
In China, the number four is considered significantly unlucky, as it is nearly homophonous to the word ‘death’.
In a multicultural country like Australia you may find hotels and cinemas missing both 13th and fourth floors, out of respect for the trepidation people can have about those numbers.
Whatever you do today, there is only one ‘13’ running at Fairview.
That’s Red Berry in the final race of the day. Rather stick the daughter of Redoute’s Choice in the Pick 6 and Place Accumulator perms – and don’t leave the 4 out anywhere either!
