Yesterday decided to go with a couple of my dodgy mates and take our families to the Udon race track.Rcaes are held each Staurday afternoon from 12.30 to 5 pm. 10 races with about 8 horses in each. Bets can be laid between 20 Bhat and 2,000, as well there seemed to be a couple of bookies around.
Theses are my dodgy mates, Dave (a septic) and Mutz (a Swede ), here they are just having laid a bet, Mutz was quite lucky, he won quite a bit and as is the custom shouted a beer after a win. As a consequence I went home quite shit faced.
This is the area where bets are laid and food and bozze are consumed, behind the stand, a few Military gents around so assume the whole setup is operated by the defence forces. Plenty of food available, even a western food stall doing hamburgers and Hot dogs etc.
Some good ol Udon boys enjoying a beer and the races, lots of Westeners there. Drinks and food very cheap, large Leo was 40 Baht, 3 cans of heiny 100 Baht and free peanuts from the stall holder. Good deal and great service, you just looked at the stall holder and her was over with new beer and fresh glasses with peanuts.
Very pleasant service. copetition was hot, lots of stalls selling the full range of Booze and Thai tatty stuff. Enough loverly beer girls roaming around to even keep Propagator VERY happy.
So onto the racing, sadly the race starts way other the other side of the track so you can barely see the start, then they only run 1000 Mtrs to the finish line so its all over and done with quickly. I suppose being Thai horses they ain't got too much energy.
So here they come to the finish line, the crowd noise is incredible, I thought the bloody stand was going to come down.
Shown below is the Sports club, I guess like the Members area where all the high rollers hang out. I didn't press my luck seeing if they would leta scum bag Farang enter, but next time I will put on my best Tefler type shoes and a tie and see if I can gain entry.
The birdcage are where the horses are paraded around before the race. Horses didn't look in bad condition really.
Some of the jockeys looked like they were about 8 years old, they could hardly reach the stirrups.
A view of the stand from the track rails. Well behaved crowd with the usual race track mafia types present, big amulets, mullet haircuts and gold chains etc but security was quite tight, lots of little guys with security uniforms keeping a close eye on the crowd.
Met the loacal Udon big bike dealer there, this guy will put most Thai bullshitters to shame, reckons he owns 17 race horses, I followed his tips for a couple of races but had better luck going with the advice of the Beer can collector.
Then as I was using wifeys little camera the battery called it quits.
All in all a good afternoon out, cheap food and beer, no entry fee, bit of fun with the betting, wife had some luck with her bets and covered the day out Booze and all. I got well pissed and went home to sleep it off, kids thought it was great.