It’s been about 35 years since I last went to the horse races. On that occasion it was Ripon and I was too young to bet (well, directly anyway. I do seem to remember bets being made by proxy). However, I was given a pair of tickets to go to Newbury for last night’s meet and so off we went. It was a lovely evening for it but given we were in the premier enclosure a jacket was in order which was a little warm but I did feel smart.
I was surprised at how many races there were – seven in total – one every half an hour. This meant that by the time you had selected “your” horse, placed your bet and watched the line up that half an hour went pretty quickly.
We watched the first few races and investigated how the betting went before we placed any bets ourselves. Given it was all a bit of fun we selected horses based on spurious criteria and placed (very) small bets to win on the tote. We lost a total of £7 in the end (the last of the big spenders) but had some fun doing so.
Had we not been given the tickets it would have cost us £25 a head and while it was a good night out I’m not sure that I would say it was worth that to me. So while I might not leave it 35 years until I visit again I probably won’t be racing back…
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