June 15, 2004
A Day at the Races
Wasn't that a Queen album? Anyway, I went for an evening at Windsor Races courtesy of someone who was doing some hostility, or hospitalisation, or something. The evening got off to a cracking start when we arrived within 400 metres of the course only for the Roy to turn left rather than right and put us at the back of the queue. 50 minutes later we parked. Luckily I had my laptop with me so I kept busy.
I quite like a bit of gambling but it's quite daunting standing there with the race card looking at all the details and taking advice from the people around. "It's a lottery this one, as none of the horses have ever won". Ahh right, so this one's a lottery unlike the next one. The temptation is to stick a tenner on something at long odds and go and get a beer.
We missed the first race and I dithered before the second. So the third race, the 8pm, came up and there were about 12 runners. I settled on the favourite Caustic Wit as it had beaten lots of the others before and had such a sweet name. I got the best odds I could from the bookies (7/2) and watched the race:
Here's the big screen with the time zoomed in:
Here they are running down the slope (there's no slope in fact so It Must Be User Error)
and here is number 6, Caustic Wit, winning.
I thought it particularly nice of all the trackside spectators to salute as it crossed the line. That's £90 for my £20 stake. "Do you know how much that is dear? £70". "Those were the odds were they Basil?". I lost on the other races.
I bring you all this detail so that my stories can be believed as I see there is some doubt as to the voracity of my accounts creeping into the comments around here. Of course the truth is possibly that these aren't my photos and I didn't go...