At the Races

Last weekend on our visit to Penang, on the Taxi ride from the Airport to the Hotel I saw the entrance to the "Penang Turf Club" and a billboard saying a race day on saturday.
That evening a very helpful Taxi Driver (Charlie) told me it was the Penang Cup and would be worth going. So saturday afternoon, off we trot to the races. The entrance fee was a cool 6 Ringets (85p), and an extra 5RM for a form guide. Nuch as never been to the races as gambling is illegal in Thailand, she was taken aback at how many people would be into horse racing and gambling. most of the punters were chinese, the chinese are notorious for there gambling habits, what was curious, was how everyone was gathering round in 12 - 20 man clusters, most bizarre. It soon became apparent what was happening, these guys were illegal Bookmakers, about two minutes before the first race the whole place erupted into a mass of Bookies going crazy shouting their odds to all the people around, although totally illegal, I think a few bribes had changed hands and the officials looked the other way.

The first race was at 2pm so I decided to go with the form and put 20RM on the nose on a horse called China Rock (Picture). When I saw it on the parade ground, what a knackered old nag, bits of grey and looking very pissed off.
Oh well. it was only for fun. We went down to the finishing line and watched the race, and in the home stretch it was No. 4 China Rock in the lead, winning by 3 lengths, Nuch was having a mental. China Rock duely came home the winner and I went off to collect my winnings. 136RM, which meant I'd won 116RM ( £17.13), which bizarrely was exactly what dinner cost that evening.
Despite this win, I know when its time to quit, so we called it a day and went back to count our money.