A Day at the Races

A couple of weeks ago, my employer sent around an e-mail that offered free tickets to Ascot on a first-come basis. I asked for a couple, and fortunately, ended up being one of the first, and therefore, got tickets. So, yesterday was the appointed day, and we duly dressed up in "smart dress", as required by our tickets, and headed to Ascot. (I will point out that this was not the "Royal Ascot" with all the hats and whatnot.) After going, I asked Michelle if this could count as our horse show that she wanted to do, and she said it could.

At any rate, we arrived in Ascot and stopped off at a local pub for lunch before heading to the race track. I've never been to any sort of race before, much less a true thoroughbred horse race, so this was definitely a new experience for me. I stopped off and bought the "Racing Post" prior to entering the track, in the hopes that it would help me somewhat in getting a clue about the horses. After we got there, we went and sat in the Parade Circle and waited for the horses to come around.

Before each race, the horses in the race come out and walk around the Circle and everyone can see them. Then the jockeys mount the horses and they ride onto the course. I suppose this gives the true knowledgeable bettors a last chance to see whatever they might see in the horse before they race. For us, it was just a chance to see the horses up close.

For the first race, we sat up top and watched the action from above, which was definitely the best place to watch from, although we didn't bet anything. We did place a few bets throughout the day - we let the kids pick a couple of horses, and placed a bet for one of Michelle's friends, but nothing large... basically 2 pounds per bet. Still, we did win a few, and it didn't matter then what the payout was, it was just the rush of excitement when the horses went running by and the excitement of winning. We did pop back down to the Parade Circle after the race to take a few pictures of our winning horses. When they were presenting the awards for the main race of the day, which were basically different sized crystal vases, one of the jockeys who was standing there with his vase dropped it and it broke. You would have to have seen the look on the presenter's face - it was both horrible and funny at the same time.

All in all, it was good fun. Maggie said she wanted to come back and do it again, and I think we all enjoyed it. I may just try to find another horse race to go to before we leave.