The Marvelous Kirchner Adventures in Hong Kong: Horse Racing

Last night, Drew and I went with several of Drew's coworkers to the horse racing track in Happy Valley, which is very close to us. They have 8 races every Wed during spring. I think I have found a new favorite pastime. It only cost $1.50 to get in the door. But then, of course, you can bet all sorts of money on the horses. You can also make all sorts of different bets, from picking the outright winner, to picking a horse just to place in the top three, to picking the top three finishers in order, etc. Should be actuarial heaven right? Well, we bet maybe 5 times at $2.50 a piece, and Drew won once and I never did. But, it makes the races very exciting. The best part was you could stand right on the outer railing. So, you could see the horses load up and watch them gallop past. They really are beautiful animals. One thing on my bucket list is to learn to ride, well enough that it listens to me and not the horse in front of it. Grandma Pat, this is the first place we are taking you if you ever come to visit!

In the very last race, Drew had bet for me that horse #4 would win. After warm ups when it came down the track, he was all lathered in sweat, which I know is not a good thing from reading my childhood thoroughbred novels. Well, once they loaded him in the gate, he freaked out and started jumping around and kicking the sides. They had to let him out, and some ref waived a yellow flag at him. I assumed that meant the horse was disqualified, but they still reloaded him. He ran the race, but came dead last by a long ways. Again, not sure if he was already disqualified, so the jockey wasn't trying, or maybe he had injured himself in the gate. I don't know. At the end, I realized that no Chinese person would sympathize with my bad luck, because it was bound to happen. He was the number four horse!

The grandstands.