1 post tagged “horse-racing”
Have you ever wondered why so many places in the world are called "Happy Valley"? Even limiting oneself to places whose names are of Anglo-American origin, there are at least 3 in Canada, 2 in Australia, 1 in Kenya, 1 in Hong Kong, and 3 in the States. I'm sure there are more. I don't know if there's any common origin for the name. Probably none, and I haven't found any. Samuel Johnson did write a novel called "The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia" in 1759, in which there was a fictional place in Abyssinia called Happy Valley, and the editors of the Wikipedia page for Happy Valley, Utah suggest that the name may have come from that novel.
In Hong Kong, where I live, Happy Valley is better known for its horse-racing course. These days, racing over the weekends takes place at another race-course in Shatin, and Happy Valley is used during the week on Wednesday nights in the racing season.
Horse-racing in Hong Kong began in the 1840's when the British colonised Hong Kong. Happy Valley then was a marshy area but it was one of the few flatlands on Hong Kong Island, and the British promptly converted it to a race-course. The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club was set up in 1884 (the word "Royal" was dropped from its name after Hong Kong reverted to China in 1997). For many years now the Jockey Club, with pickings taken from bets on the immensely popular sport, has been a major source of income for charities.
I went racing on Wednesday night with a few friends. The last time I did it was with my friend Lulu, quite a few years ago. There are so many ways of betting, called pools, that every time I go, I have to re-learn them afresh. Here are some pools:
- Win - the most obvious one - you place a bet on the horse who you hope will win a particular race
- Place - the horse you bet on has to finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd in the particular race
- Quinella - the 2 horses you bet on have to finish 1st and 2nd, in either order
- Quinella Place - the 2 horses you bet on have to finish 1st, 2nd or 3rd
- Trio - the 3 horses you bet on have to finish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, in any order
- Tierce - the 3 horses you bet on have to take the first 3 places, in the correct order
These are single-race bets, or pools. And then there are multiple-race bets, which are too complicated for me.
With years of experience, the Jockey Club is one of the best-run horse-racing clubs in the world. The staff are well-trained, friendly and helpful. I'd actually forgotten how smooth the whole operation was. What's more, for a rookie like me, you don't get snubbed, sneered at, or get that incredulous look from anyone just because you have to ask what a quinella bet is, or if you place a minimum bet of HK$10. Altogether it was a jolly evening at the races. At the end of the evening, I found myself having made a small net contribution to the charities in Hong Kong. Not too bad at all.
