This weekend the weather forecast was 70 degrees and sunny,
so Hayden and I brought out the fancy clothes and headed down to Kembla Grange
to watch the races. Kembla Grange is down the south coast of New South Wales
just outside of Wollongong, and nearby Mt. Keira and Mt. Kembla add some nice
scenery. It’s not as fancy as Randwick in the city, but people were still
dressed up and the country atmosphere was really nice. We got there just as the
first race was starting, and I put $5 on a complete dud – so far this was not
working out as I had hoped. The course looked insanely big close up, and I
could barely see the starting gates from the spectator area on the grass near
the finish line. The trainers would walk the horses by the spectators before
the race, so my technique was either to pick one that looked confident, or pick
one that had a name that I liked. I’m sure the bookies love having people like
me come to the races, but I was having a good time regardless.
It was ladies day and they had a “fashions on the field”
event (which I didn’t enter) to pick who had the best dress and who had the
best fascinator (AKA crazy hat). The races were spaced about half an hour
apart, so during the down time I could hang around the tents and have a drink,
or just enjoy the sunshine out on the grass. In the end most of my horses lost,
but I did back a winner that was a total long shot and won me $90, more than
enough to make up for my losses plus a spaghetti dinner later that night.
Even the seagulls were lined up to watch.
Enjoying the sun in between races.
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