One of the many “sporting clubs” I wrote about earlier was the Racing Club. A buddy of mine invited me out recently to a day at the races. Australians take their horse-racing seriously, even more so than the blue-grass raised Kentuckian. And their tracks show it.
There are 15-20 major tracks scattered across the Eastern provinces. The races are lined up so that there is literally a race going on every minute of every weekend (of daylight).
(Sidenote: Australians absolutely LOVE to gamble. There are “TAB” booths in virtually every bar. At these booths you can bet on any sporting event. Additionally, Australia only has 0.5% of the world’s population, but also has ~20% of the world’s slot machines. The addiction is even more evident at the horse races. There are two separate places to bet – first, with the TAB against everyone who is betting across the country. Alternatively, there are independent bookies that also have booths set-up that bet on their own information).
Since I was in the member’s area, my day was much more exciting than the commoner. After a 4-course meal in the member’s area, we were able to go walk down in the paddocks and look at the horses before they started to race. Tim, my friend, is a great horse handicapper and pointed out the things to look for during the race. Since it was a wet day and very muddy track, he claimed to have the “inside information” on the “Greys”, which is a stable in NSW.
When the races started, I won (only a little) when I took his advice, and didn’t win once when I ventured into taking my own bets. As you can imagine, watching the horses with a bunch of rich yuppies with a decent amount of money on them was a lot of fun. Each time a big winner came, more champagne was ordered for all.
There are 15-20 major tracks scattered across the Eastern provinces. The races are lined up so that there is literally a race going on every minute of every weekend (of daylight).
(Sidenote: Australians absolutely LOVE to gamble. There are “TAB” booths in virtually every bar. At these booths you can bet on any sporting event. Additionally, Australia only has 0.5% of the world’s population, but also has ~20% of the world’s slot machines. The addiction is even more evident at the horse races. There are two separate places to bet – first, with the TAB against everyone who is betting across the country. Alternatively, there are independent bookies that also have booths set-up that bet on their own information).
Since I was in the member’s area, my day was much more exciting than the commoner. After a 4-course meal in the member’s area, we were able to go walk down in the paddocks and look at the horses before they started to race. Tim, my friend, is a great horse handicapper and pointed out the things to look for during the race. Since it was a wet day and very muddy track, he claimed to have the “inside information” on the “Greys”, which is a stable in NSW.
When the races started, I won (only a little) when I took his advice, and didn’t win once when I ventured into taking my own bets. As you can imagine, watching the horses with a bunch of rich yuppies with a decent amount of money on them was a lot of fun. Each time a big winner came, more champagne was ordered for all.
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