Extraoardinary chain of events

New years day 2000. Myself and a friends two children celebrated the day at a charity fun day at Park Beach recreational area, New South Wales, Australia. The highlight of the day, as always are the duck races, all monies raised donated to charity. At a cost of $1 you buy a plastic duck with a number written under the bottom of it. When all the ducks are sold { about 100} they are lined up behind a barrier and released in the creek with the tide outgoing. I bought 3 tickets in each race, the tickets having the corresponding number to the number of a particular plastic duck. I held the tickets and the two children each chose one ticket each leaving me with mine. First race, the ducks were very spread out. I was delighted when one of the children had the winning ticket. Second race, exactly the same outcome, same child holding the winning ticket. A friend joked saying, "this must be rigged". Third duck race, no win this time but still amazed at previous two wins. Fourth race. The ducks were tightly bunched up except for one way out in front and one straggling a long way behind. I said to my friend " I bet that duck way behind is one of ours". No sooner had I said this when the ducks hit a whirlpool. They all turned around so that the one comming last was suddenly first and the one that was first was now last. By some quirky twist, the duck that went from hopelessly last to first place was again ours. In fact, the same child picked 3 out of 3 winning tickets from my hand. What made the whole thing even more bizzare was the banana event that happened prior to the duck races. Hundreds of bananas had numbers written on them and were scattered on the sand. I bought 3 tickets. The children chose their tickets from my hand. A person on a hang glider flew in and the banana he landed closest to was the winner. You wouldnt read about it. It was our banana, same child. We won. An unfortunate incident though, the hang glider crash landed onto our banana, hurt his neck and was carried away in an ambulance. On New Years day I always ask a question, its a personal thing. I just hope that in some way an answer will come to me. On that particular day my question was to do with the difference between first and last, does it really even matter? The ducks encountering the whirlpool gave me the answer. Its really only about what happens along the way, in between. What I thought startling was that this child goes up to collect winning prise after winning prise. I asked her if anyone commented. She said NO, but said they did give her a weird look. The odds of this chain of events happening sounds not believable but I can prove that it did happen just as I have written.