Of course, we’re creatures who are riddled with quirks- like petty annoyances that have to do with, well, stupidity. A particular peeve is hearing someone say, “it’s raining outside”. Of course, it must be raining “outside”. When does it ever rain inside? Anyway, it’s been raining outside most of the day. More rain is forecast. For outside. On, by the way, what would have been Bruce Lee’s 78th birthday. Maybe the sky’s crying for Bruce and Brandon.
Today’s also a Happy Wednesday at Happy Valley racecourse. Some enjoy hanging out at the Beer Garden and singing and dancing in the rain. Everyone has their own bouts of weirdness. Maybe some will still be celebrating what would have yesterday been the 76th birthday of Jimi Hendrix. We sure don’t consume music like we used to when music kept that long train running. That’s for sure. That long train has been derailed. Even The Marathon Man has stopped running. Still, great music by great musicians live on. It keeps us honest. To ourselves.
IF venturing out to take in a Happy Wednesday, there’s nothing like taking shelter from the storm at Adrenaline, engage in fun, unpretentious banter with the band, those with nothing to hide and comfortable in their own skin, listen to the ‘live’ music and chillax and work out a Six Up and Treble. With no great expectations.
With another jackpot this week, the Six Up is expected to balloon to around $15m. Those are a lotta balloons. The question is how much to invest to try and snag this Six Up? Just a fun thing to do. We’re not trying to Save The Whales. Not at Adrenaline. We go to Adrenaline to switch off. To get back to some form of reality.
Where does one even start to try and crack tonight’s Six Up?
Pick all the favourites and the various, but often similar selections from form analysts and newspaper and online tipsters and you’ll most likely fall at the first hurdle. Try not to. Enter the Dragon and new thinking.
“Stats” have shown that the favourite almost never wins the third race- the first leg of the Six Up. Karma comes into play. And for reasons known to no one, the favourite just disappears from view. It’s weird. It’s like they’d been sucked into the Bermuda Triangle. No, I won’t go there.
Even if you take every runner in race three, there’s race 4 to conquer. Being the first leg of the Triple Trio, prepare for favourites to crash and burn like Purple Haze catching fire All Along The Watchtower.
Again, Lord Karma karma karma karma comes calling. It might have been two weeks ago, but jockey Grant van Niekerk won the fourth race on a horse few had even heard of. It won at 54 to 1. Scrambled in to beat another horse never heard of and ridden by Derek Leung. That galloper was around 38 to 1. The 2 to 1 favourite in the race? Came fourth. They don’t pay for coming fourth. Funny how many who have watched the race and seen their horse come fourth ask, “Did I win?”
After that free fall? If lucky, someone might go to the buffet table and bring you a small tub of ice cream and a plate of macaroons. Gobble all this down and go on some sugar high where you end up tweeting some rubbish or decide to throw caution to the wind and buy the Treble- every horse in each of the last three races. The maths would be 12x12x12. Total cost: Around $15,000. You can’t lose. But you can. Especially if the Treble ends up paying $217. Uh oh.
One Happy Wednesday it paid just that. $217. Not even two dozen macaroons could have helped scrape one off the floor. You just wanted Shane Anderson to magically appear, cradle your head in his arms and croon “My Way”. What? You’ve never heard of ShaneO? The Mr U.R. Blocked of racing Down Under’s Twitterverse? Careful. He might deprive you from following his horsey wisdom on…Twitter? Dear Gawd…
Getting back to the Six Up tonight, race five is run over the distance of 2200 metres. These distance races can be scary affairs. There aren’t many of them in Hong Kong. If there’s an inexperienced rider participating, expect more than a soupçon of weirdness. Like taking off like Meat Loaf and a bat outta hell and leading by around ten lengths before the horse decides he doesn’t want to play anymore. He’s confused. The jockey is confused. Everyone is confused. Jimi is singing. ‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky.
Still with that approximate $15m Six Up jackpot up for grabs, you’ve gotta be in it to win it. Something like that.
So, what to do? Try pot luck. Go with Dragon energy. Believe.
Race 3 has nine runners with at least eight capable of winning. The favourite will probably be Helene Charisma. The galloper has yet to win in Hong Kong, but looked very unlucky at its last start. It really should win. But beware the Race 3 Favourites Bermuda Triangle.
Race 4: Four chances. Race 5: Gawd knows. Race 6: Six winning chances. Race 7: Five winning chances. Race 8: To many, Blitzing (9) is a standout. But standouts can always be knocked over by some Little Bird or Sir Redalot.
Good luck! And work towards making a better tomorrow. Today doesn’t last forever. Yesterday does. Strange, isn’t it?
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