Horse Racing = Keiba

1 HP

55,000 people spending 200Y to get in, about 1000Y on food/drink, and another 500Y on bets = 93,500,000Y (around $935,000 USD), and that’s an underestimate of how much money is spent at these things. (I saw this guy at the redemption machine pulling out a a fat stack of 1000Y bills (around $10) so i can only imagine how much he had to bet to get that much back.)

Horse racing is a sight to see. The pictures/videos below document races in Kyoto and Osaka respectively.

{still figuring out how to put up the vids… sorry!}

First of all, I know nothing about betting. Even when I went to Vegas I stuck to the easy to understand, flashing, cool music playing, entertaining, picture slot machines. Odds, favorites, and all that other jazz means nothing to me. I let it all ride on chance and superstition and get easily attracted by cool, bright things.

My entire selection process was based soley on the coolness of names. ‘Horse-name-cool-factor’ served me right for the biggest race. Scrolling through the program for the 11th and biggest race, I found a name that immediately struck me as the coolest: ‘Oken Bruce Lee.’ FIrst of all, what cooler name is there than Lee? Second, ‘Ken’ was part of the name. Third, ‘Bruce Lee’ is arguably the coolest man ever. Oken Bruce Lee was wearing number 14 which is twice the amount of lucky 7 thus Oken Bruce Lee was twice as lucky. It all made sense. I bet 100Y (about $1) for Oken Bruce Lee to take first for the biggest race.

The biggest race on this day was between countries. There were jockeys from different countries competing for mad-props.

Watching horses run really fast is pretty cool. Makes me want to try…

All in all, I think horse races are good fun to watch. Don’t go crazy and make huge bets, especially if you’re like me and don’t know anything about betting at horse races. I had a great time making a few 100Y bets – two of which payed off! My first winner was of course Oken Bruce Lee at the Kyoto Hanshin Track. My second victory was at Osaka. And again, it was the biggest race. This time though, a 100Y bet turned into 980Y. Not bad not bad…