Day 14 - 10 races, 1 winner, 2 Tequilas 1 very long taxi ride home.

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Sunday morning, the 15th of November and this first of the Cathay Pacific sponsored Race Days at Sha Tin Racecourse.


The first of 10 races would comence at 13:00 and I left home a little before 11:00, and arrived a little after 12:00. On race days the MTR open the "Racecourse" station, which leads via a footbrigde straight onto the concourse of the track. I was home ;o) As many of my firends know I like a bet, I'm not a gamble-a-holic, I don't have a problem I can stop any time I want, I just don't want to... plus, I'm not a quitter! ha...

So, I made my way outside to check the track, and agreed with the course clark/steward that today the going was good, and standard on the All Weather - looking good for some Favorites Chaz! I walked allong the grandstand front to nearer the finishline then headed inside to get some lunch and start ploughing through my 27 pages of from thanks to the Jockey Club of Hong Kong. The situation with regards to betting and gambling is very different. The Hong Kong Jockey Club is the only legal bookmakers in the HK. They are a non-profit organisation that give most of their money away to Chairty(s), and that is why they are allowed to opperate. the bet using a tote system, and its all done via optical mark slips, by selecting a race number, horse number, bet and stake. Easy you might think for a 5 year veteren of the bookmaking world. My first bet had to be re-written out by on the of the very helpful and handy HKJC staff at the betting terminal, as did my 2nd and third I think. ha!

I order some lunch, and got a beer, and read through the form for race 1. My selection Sabina, 5/2 3.5 fav, obviously. Got beaten about 3 lengths in 5th or 6th... hmm... top up the beer and start again. I managed a pretty good routine for the first couple of races, get a beer, go to the parade ring, put on a bet and watch the horse be at the front with 200 metres to go, before failing to stay the distance and finish unplaced. After a few drinks, and some loosers, maybe race 5 or 6, I was asked if I had that winner, which I did not, but his is how I met Rob, a very nice guy from Royal Tumbridge Wells. We proceded to follow my set tradition of getting a beer, and picking a horse. He too hadn't had much luck, and it made sense that we would put our betting knowledge together, pick a form horse then scrap that idea and pick something with bigger odds to help in our quest of chasing our losses. Foolproof plan you must be thinking, as were we, but let me tell you... its hard to chase your losses, especially when you cant go smash 20quid in the roulette machine to make up for it.. ha!! anyway... back to the real stuff.

Me and Rob kinda of met an Australian guy, the course regular and absolute classic Gent. He started telling us of his VAST knowledge of the horses here, as most only race at Sha Tin, or back in Hong Kong Central at Happy Valley so he knows them like old friends. Plus he seemed to talk to all the trainers and all the Jockey Club insiders. Like I said classic. He told us he had had the last 5 winners, it wasn't till a little later we saw his slip, he was picking 4 horses in a race - perhaps that was where we were going wrong... but 4 horses out of 12 doesn't seem much like fun or much like betting, if you win, you still lose, and if you lose you lose 4 times!

Anyway, race 9 of 10 rolled along quick enough, 17:00 race. And at this point me and Rob were truely stuck into our form and getting to grips with the way to go. My pick, number 11, no time for horse names now, just numbers. Horse 11 was 8.9 in the betting, 3rd favorite behind an odds on shot and some other duff horse. Rob concured the #11 had chances and backed it for the place. I had $50 on the place, and $40 on the win. We got our bets on, and went outside where the rain was just starting to spit. They linned up in the stalls on the back side of the track, curtasy of the giant screen we were seeing a live feed. They were off, and I couldn't see which one my horse was... they turned the bend, and I still couldnt work out my horse, as they came off the bend the race started in ernest, and yes, I still couldn't see my horse. Then off the big screen, a horse, a magnificant beast came pounding along the outside, maybe six horses wide and running like.... a.. race.. horse.... A big beatufil 11 blazened upon its saddle... I caught it with my eyes just seconds before it passed all the others and hit the winning line. The grandstand already somewhat depleted fell silent. The funny drunk Englishman yelled "OI OI, GET IN THERE YOU FUCKING BEAUTY!", sadly Robs selection to win was second, and but he got place money 1/1 on #11. I was back in the game, and little under my money back for the day. We both put our left over coins on the last losing horse, and then headed back to Hong Kong.

Rob told me that he was on a three night layover in Hong Kong having come from Oz, so I offered to take him for a few beers, he agreed it was a good plan of action so we went to Central, found some dinner then headed around the corner to Lang Kwai Fong. As we were walking up the mildly steep slope up towards the bars, I saw a familiar face, thats right it was the wonderfully entertaining Drunk English Girl as mentioned in a pervious blog. Apparently, she has a name and its not Drunk English Girl. Camilla introduced us to her Friend Sarah, and I introduced them to Rob. We sat around talking for a while drinking at a reasonable pace, and having a laugh. Both girls were teachers and needed to leave soon for school in the morning. Me and Rob had no such plans - well, Rob actually had plans to do some sight seeing the following day, but I didn't so we decided when they e\left to go to another bar, and sink some drinks. From here it gets a little blury. We went to the bar on the corner that I had been to several times and despite the same barmen seeing me, they still did not know I like lots of rum, a little ice and NO LIME OR LEMON. But we got there eventually. After much drinking and dancing to cheesy classics, two Tequilas found their way to the bar, I cannot remember if I ordered them - I hope not - I like to think one of my new bar chums put them there for me. I duely licked the salt, slammed the drink, and sucked the lemon, and passed the other to Rob. Rob declined, and I reapeated the process again. From here, the only other things I remember are being in a taxi heading home, stopping the driver to vomit out of the door, a situation with paying - ie, I didn't have enough, and then being sick some more at home before my dad told me to go to bed. 26 years old, and being told to go to bed by your dad... its the stuff dreams are made of.

The next day I awoke at 09:30, had a piss and went back to bed till 14:00. 10/10 for the day, a great day, and we will try again soon... I hear Happy Valley is on every Wednesday... ;o)

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