16 March - A day at the races
What a day!
I just got back from the horse races here in Cheltenham. The town has been buzzing all week since it's "race week"-- the week of the Cheltenham Gold Cup Festival. The electric atmosphere is contagious, even walking through town to go to lecture, and at night all the pubs and clubs are packed full (mostly of rich middle-aged men). A big group of students went "pub-crawling" (aka bar-hopping) last night, and a lot of the girls were saying how they spent hardly anything all night because creepy old Irishmen bought all their drinks.
So, I've been looking forward to going all week, not only because that's where the excitement is (the festival draws national & international attention), but also because I've never been to a horse race before!
Some of the British students work at the races. It's good money, and I'm sure it's exciting. But we lowly Americans aren't allowed to work here; you have to get a special visa before entering the country in order to do that.
Tomorrow (Friday) is the big day, where the Gold Cup will actually be awarded, by none other than Camilla Parker Bowles. Prince Charles and Camilla will be in Cheltenham tomorrow! The future king of England, in lil' ole Cheltenham. who knew?
I would love to go back tomorrow, but as you can imagine, tickets are quite expensive. We weren't even sure if we would get in today, but we -- Leslie, Jamie, Christen, Stephanie, Jake and I (all BCA students) -- managed to find some (scalped) tickets on our way in for £10 each.
Leslie & Jamie, happy to have tickets. It turns out that we missed the first race,
but we were just glad to be there!
Before we even got close to the race track, we saw the horses being walked out from the stable.
All I can say is, sooo much beer. I can't imagine how much money they make off beer alone.
We went into the betting office first, since we had time before the next race started. We managed to cram our way in, trying not to get beer spilled on us. Everyone in the betting office was either looking at their little guidebooks or newspapers or filling out their little cards.
(There were greyhound races too, but we only saw the horses.)
The betting office was so crowded! And full of men. We girls were definitely outnumbered. Another thing I noticed was that a lot of the men at the races dress up. I was surprised by how many of them were wearing full suits, ties, etc. But then again I guess this isn't your average American racecourse. Not quite the Nascar crowd. Some of them drop a lot of money on these bets.
The Gold Cup (tomorrow) prize is £350,000. If that means nothing to you, double it and that is roughly the USD equivalent. All that money at stake for one race... that lasts only a few minutes. The horse does all the work, and who gets the money? The jockey. Today I saw on the big screen that they took the saddle off the horse and it was steaming, it was so cold outside. The first (actually the second) race we just watched, and decided to place bets on the next one. So, we made our way over to the betting office again. There were betting tills outside too, but we preferred to brave the crowd than stand outside in the cold! Most of us just placed £5 bets, on different horses. Except for Jake, who had multiple bets going. Jake had a sizeable amount of cash with him, and on the way to the racecourse he was talking about spending it all today (with hopes of winning, of course) but thankfully that didn't happen. He bet more than the rest of us but he did win £50 by the end of the day. Christen won some money, too.
Christen, Jamie & me with our betting tickets. My first "real" bet!
My horse, number 7, "Emotional Moment" didn't have the best odds... I think 23/1 or something like that. Not very good. But you never know, right? I had no idea what I was doing... or where to even start. I think he was Irish. Most of them were Irish, French, or British, and there were a few Americans. I don't even know where my horse placed, since everything is crazy at the end of the race. Everyone is cheering and they go so fast and the announcer is talking so fast (and in a British accent) and the crowds are mumbling and grunting either out of joy or disappointment. And everyone makes their way over to the betting tills to either collect their money or bet on the next race, or both. And 45 minutes later the next race starts, and the whole thing over again.
We stayed for the 4:00 race, so we saw 3 races. There was another after that but it was way too cold! snowy and windy and freezing.
Even though it was cold, it was a great day! We were all so excited to be a part of the local festivities. This will definitely be one of my favorite Cheltenham memories!
Click here to see more pictures from the races.
posted by Anna K @ 1:33 PM
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