Singapore Cup Horse Race

When we got invited to attend the Singapore Cup Horse Race, we knew it was a great weekend to stay in Singapore! Knowing the history of fashion typically worn at horse races, I thought I needed to buy a hat. Good thing I didn’t find one I liked – I would have been the only 1 of 2 people there with a hat on! Apparently, the new fashion to wear at horse races is feather hairpieces. You know – the ones pinned into the side of your head with bright fake colored feathers that stick up very tall to get attention. Too bad I didn’t save any of my dance costume headpieces from my 13 years of performance. I think they might have come in handy…

We went with a group of co-workers to the “Party on the Lawn” section of the race track, and sat/stood in a covered tent area beside the track with a very close view of the horses when they passed by for each race – all 0.3 seconds of it! The horses were very cool to see up close – the races started in the middle of the track for the short races, and our tent was on the left side of the track – so we only got to see them right before the leaders started pulling ahead. For the last & longest race though, they moved the starting line to right in front of our tent! We tried to get some close up shots of the horses coming out of the gate, but our shuttle speed could not keep up! They were just a blur of colors in 2 frames.

Since we have never been to the horse races – or even watched one closely on TV before – we were totally clueless as to placing bets. The world of horse betting is quite complicated! We had $5 vouchers each to place bets on horses, and we used them on the first two races with no money won. (We bet on the single horse winner, and that is hard to win). Then we branched out to trying different types of bets – top 3 to place (in any order), winner, first & second (in any order), etc. Altogether, we spent about $30 and made none. Guess we don’t have to worry about having a gambling problem. =)

One of our friends won very big on a $5 bet! He picked the top 3 horses to win (in any order) and changed one of the 3 horses he had picked at the last minute from listening to a friend’s advice. He also gave the lady $10 for a $5 bet, and she didn’t give him change, so he just shrugged his shoulders and figured it didn’t matter. When his 3 horses crossed the finish line as the Top 3 place finishers, he jumped up and down and realized he had won a bet that was actually doubled! I think his total win was close to $170. Pretty good return!

The Singapore Cup was a once in a lifetime experience…and we plan to keep it that way!