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Orchid Queen at the races!

They're off today at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. 
It's horse racing Bangkok style.

We decided to walk there from our new apartment, an easy twenty-minute walk, well it would be if it wasn't so hot. 

 Mad dogs and Englishmen and all that... 
We've regretted this decision by the time we walked down the first Soi. 

Luckily, it's Sunday and the roads in our neighbourhood, primarily a central business and embassy district, are very much quieter than normal. 

Just us and a few hundred thousand wires and no traffic jam - Yay! 



The racetrack runs around the edge of the Royal Bangkok Sports Club. It's the only racecourse I've been to that has golfers playing in the middle. Mr Wren
mutters something about how he wouldn't have the confidence to hit a ball with both a full grandstand and the line-up of valuable thoroughbreds galloping round the outside!


Once inside the Club, we're not conforming to the dress code which is long trousers for men and blue, black or grey colours as a mark of respect for the late King, as Thailand is still in a period of mourning. We are looking quite a sight by this stage dripping in sweat, despite lots of dabbing of our foreheads.
Even given our 'spot the newbies who haven't acclimatised yet' appearance, the locals are terribly polite and no-one seems to stop us. We find ourselves track side, amongst the journalists and caddies waiting to cross the course. The stands are full, and there appear to be good beer sales, the crowd roars with enthusiasm, as the horses thunder past. The perfect grass course is declared fast unlike their loading of the horses into the starting stalls.


The horses are held for an inordinate amount of time in the starting stalls and Mr Wren wanders off to check out the delay on the television screens. The race is already twenty-five minutes behind schedule, we smile. This would never happen at the Victorian Racing Club, in Melbourne.

Looking at the line-up, one of the horses, waiting to race in the starting stalls is Orchid Queen. One of the Journo's tells us she's good. 

"Quick, get a 100 Baht on that one", I suggest. 
Orchid Queen!
Remember our visit last weekend to the Orchid Farm? Well, bless her, number 10 Orchid Queen thunders home a short head in front. But wait, a stewards enquiry involving three horses. Our new Journo mate tells us we'll be right and we were. I'm off to pick up my winnings! She was 9-1, shame I only bet 100 Baht!

Still, I'm doing well this week, earlier in the week I'd won two British Airways flight tickets to the UK, how good is that? Maybe I should go for third time lucky and buy a lottery ticket!


Linking thanks to Darren at Photolife for My Sunday Photo 
and to all the hosts at Our World Tuesday


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Location: Bangkok, Thailand

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