It poured rain and thundered off and on all night, then after a quiet morning at home Colin and I went to the races – not cycle races, but horses at the Luxe Hippodrome.  It was totally cool, despite being very hot. We parked and walked thru a small forest to get to the track.

Someone near the entrance was handing out free tickets to get in, which was very nice.  There were quite a few folks there already – there was a ‘beer garden’ as well as several lines of people betting.  The stands weren’t huge, but there was also a large grassy area on a hill overlooking the track.

We went first to see the horses – they’re all in one large area getting ready for their races.  Some are already trotting around the track, some are getting new shoes, and others are still in their travel carriages.

The first race started at 3:00 and they ran about every half-hour after that.  I didn’t do any betting, but if anyone wanted to make money on which one was going to lose they could go with my pick to win – I guess the colour of the jockey’s jersey isn’t the most scientific way to choose.

We watched several races – the prizes seem fairly large considering how small the venue and crowd is – the pot for one race alone was 18,000 euros.  

Even though the stands weren’t full there were several (rather fat) people that sat themselves down on the stairs – other people were having to step around and almost over them to get up or down – I really didn’t understand why they didn’t just slide their fat butts over a bit, but there you go.

We left about half-way thru – there were some horses warming up with only a rider and no cart but we didn’t stay for those races.

Stopped at the Penalty Bar on the way home, then had a really nice roast chicken and potato dinner.  Tried to get to bed a little earlier than usual as we want to get started at a decent time tomorrow.

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