“Hey, who’s playing at the races tonight?”
Sounds like a strange question to ask, but, at least in Hong Kong, the weekly Happy Wednesday night races are more than some good horse racing and the chance to have a flutter.
For only a HK$10 entrance fee, one enters a very different world than one is used to in Hong Kong.
It’s not the one-time trendy Lan Kwai Fong area.
It’s not the row of same-same clubs pumping out the same House music up and down Wyndham Street.
Nor is it another lonely night in SoHo using your best chat-up lines and coming up empty-handed and waking up with a bloody huge headache and a beer gut.
First of all, there’s the unique Happy Valley racetrack – a great Hong Kong landmark surrounded by skyscrapers.
There’s then the atmosphere of horse racing under floodlights.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH6ZimkF9gs&feature=related
There’s also something else one rarely finds in Hong Kong without having to go to the boonies:
The ability to walk around and take in the fresh air without being knocked from pillar to post.
And then there’s the options:
Have a beer or a glass of wine.
Grab some food, or watch a race.
Cheer your good thing home from right up front.
You can watch – and hear – the horses gallop by and the jockeys jostling for positions.
It’s exciting stuff and which you will never see on television.
After the race, you can reach out over the fence and give a high five to the winning jockey.
Everything is in extreme close up and it’s horse racing like you’ve never seen it.
James Cameron and his “Avatar” have nothing on this experience.
Plus, it’s very real and with no need to suspend one’s belief.
Between the races, mingle, have another beer, mingle some more and listen to music by any number of local bands.
Music and horse racing?
Why not?
And though some of the music might not exactly be the greatest in the world, who cares?
It’s all about one generation lost in space – a totally new generation entering for the first time the old world of horse racing.
It’s t-shirts, shorts and jeans instead of buttoned down people with buttoned down minds.
Sure, they’re there, too – and live and let live.
Music Rocks the Valley, indeed.
When Music is not rocking it, Fashion does, and so does the Happy Valley Oktoberfest, Wine Promotions etc.
It’s Happy Wednesday Buffet of activities – and which is why nearly everyone we know are carrying fans saying, “I’m A Happy Wednesday Fan”.
Horse racing in Hong Kong is very quickly showing the rest of the world that being at the races – and coming to the races- is not all about barrier draws and tips and knowing who’s on what and why.
It’s part of that wide world of entertainment. And it’s catching.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AXO0JJ0yMg&feature=related
Tips? Want tips? Sure, one can find tipsters or get tips anywhere you look.
But, there is no better satisfaction than you tipping yourself a winner.
There’s a certain sense of satisfaction is proving the pundits wrong.
As we say, Winners Are Grinners.
And after a night at any Happy Wednesday, win, lose or draw, everyone’s a winner and a grinner.
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