(Source: Ken Lai)
Everyone has superstitions before going to the races. In fung shui-riddled Hong Kong, going to the races is very serious business as is running a stable and ensuring that good fung shui is alive and throbbing.
(Source: Feng Shui Insights)
A stable with bad shui? Well, you could be kissing a number of horses au revoir, mes amis.
(Source: Live Psychis Network)
Remember all those stable musical chairs Good Ba Ba went through and is still going through as that knob of an owner, John Yuen, based his every move on whatever his fung shui master said?
(Source: HKJC)
And so Good Ba Ba was moved from Tony Millard to Alex Wong Yu-on, then Andreas Schutz, then Derek Cruz, then back to Schutz, then to Gary Moore in Macau, then retired and now racing again in Oz for Rick Hore Lacy.
(Source: Punters Paradise)
Just a quick one on this amazing horse which some refuse to understand: It has nothing to do with Good Ba Ba still “wanting to race” nor that it can still win races.
It has to do with the fact that after amassing over HK$58 MILLION for its idiotic owner, this rising eleven year old deserves a good retirement and not be raced into the ground.
(Source: Blood Horse)
And gawd help everyone connected with Good Ba Ba if it were to break down during a race. We’ll be at the front of the line leafing the animal rights activists.
(Source: Lawatchdog)
Owner John Yuen took fung shui to a level of idiocy but fung shui or ensuring good luck is far more important to many hardcore and old school local racegoers than any speed maps, tips, times, weights etc.
Hell, horses are moved if the fung shui of a stable is considered to be bad and which is why before a season gets under way, there is a bai san where roasted suckling pigs are offered to the gods for their blessing.
(Source: 37 Xiao)
Then there are the other quirks of racing in Hong Kong where jockeys going through a bad trot are asked- make that told- to have their heads shaved so that new luck will grow back.
(Source: HK SYU)
We have seen Gerard Mosse, Olivier Doleuze, Jeff Lloyd and even Dougie Whyte sporting spanking new egg heads. And you know what? They DO start riding winners again.
(Source: Gold Coast)
Other superstitions or fung shui Do’s and Dont’s include these space oddities even a very high David Bowie couldn’t imagine:
1) If your wife or girlfriend is menstruating, make sure she stays home.
(Source: Guess Movies)
2) If you run into a Buddhist monk while on your way to the races, turn back and go home.
(Source: Elaine Fogel)
3) Don’t read a book at the races. The word “book” in Cantonese sounds exactly like the word for “lose”.
One guesses that reading a form book is okay.
Having said this, every time we read one particular form book, we lose. Of course, this might have to do with crappy tips.
(Source: Cartoon Stock)
4) Don’t watch or be shown or even talk about porn the day before and on a race day. If this happens, well, you’re fucked.
(Source: Gonzoazama)
5) Avoid running into a pregnant woman on race day!
(Source: J True)
6) Someone tapping you on your shoulder is bad fung shui.
(Source: Lightning Octopus)
7) Someone copying your bets means “over-loading the boat” and means your bets are sunk.
(Source: Bishop Hill)
8) Lending any one money at the track is a BIG no-no!
(Source: Clker)
As the number 8 sounds like the Cantonese word for “luck”, we’ll just end here. Why press our luck?
(Source: Cartoon Stock)
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