As my parents were in town, they happened to have friends which invited us to go to the Happy Valley Jockey Club for dinner. It was my first time visiting the Jockey Club as well as the first time that I was going to place bets on horses! I was excited for the night!
It was a Wednesday night and it is not everyday that there is horse-racing at the Jockey Club. The Jockey Club has around 8 floors of different restaurants and other facilities facing the racecourse. However, I think the place is reserved for members only, so members of the public might not have access to the restaurant areas during a race day which is usually very crowded. The public however, can pay a small fee to enter the racecourse via the main entrance, but the places that they can view the race is limited to certain areas.
The easiest way to place a bet is by placing a bet on PLACE or WIN. WIN, as it says, means that you bet for the horse number that is going to be placed first. PLACE on the other hand, is to bet for one of the horses to be the top 3 of the race itself. The odds are can range from around 1:4 to 1:50 for placing a bet on WIN to 1:1.3 to 1:20 for PLACE. There is also a booklet and app that you can refer for information regarding the horse’s past races such that you can get a rough testimonial on which of the horses are the ones with the higher probability of winning. I would highly recommend people to visit the a horse-racing event as the horse racing culture is quite unique in Hong Kong!
