Looking round, he sees an elderly man running after a hat that is blowing away faster than he can catch it. The man grabs the hat just as it was about to be blown into the river, and the old gentleman is profoundly grateful.

"Oy, such a day!" he says. "This is the only memento I have of my grandfather, before he was shipped off to Auschwitz, you know? So I don't have much to give you, except this ten dollars and my very grateful blessing. Mazel tov!"

The man shrugs his shoulders and goes his way, then as he is passing a betting shop he sees the horses being posted for the first race of the day he sees that a horse called Brown Derby is priced at 25 to 1. So he thinks "eh, why not?" and puts his ten bucks of free money on the nose. To general surprise, the rank outsider romps home by two lengths.

He's all set to go when he notices there is a horse in the second race called Sombrero, priced at 14 to 1. Now this is starting to look like a sign so he plants all his winnings on it, and remarkably, Sombrero comes from nowhere in the final furlong to snatch it by a nose.

He watches to see what will happen in the third race, and sure enough, there's a horse called Chateau that's priced at 15 to 2, so he puts the whole stash on it... and it comes nowhere.

He gives a philosophical shrug and goes home, and tells his wife about the day he's had. "Honestly," he says, "I was starting to believe in the power of prayer there for a while, until it all went sour. One horse after another named after hats, and then I pick a loser."

"Idiot!" says his wife. "A chateau is like a fancy country house in France. You were thinking of chapeau."

"Ah well, never mind," says the man. "The winner must have been Japanese or something - it was a fifty to one no-hoper called Yarmulke."