A Day at the Races

Susan in the Grand stand

Last Sunday we headed to the Hippodrome, Noumea's horse racing track, to watch the Noumea Cup. The first time either of us had ever been to a horse race, we found it was a great time...especially when you wager! I would only assume that if we had actually wagered right and won some money than it really would've been a blast!

The Hippodrome is a very modern horse racing track, located just a couple of minutes stroll from our place. New Caledonians share a love for horses, as we seen the day before during a day trip to Dumbia. All along the roads here were fields full of horses and cattle, and strange to me, cowboys! Never would have thought to see so many cowboys in a South pacific country...

Anyway, back to the races...

The first horse we wagered on was called Milly Green and hailed from New Zealand. It was exciting watching the horses run around the track in the hopes that Milly would make us some grocery money to subsudize the outrageous cost of food down here! The excitement however died down a little when we seen that the horse and rider taking up the tail (by at least the length of 6 or 7 horses) was none other than Milly Green.

When the race was over and all the horses and riders were prancing around the finish line, cries of astonishment and horror erupted at the sight of the one and only Milly Green. Turns out that during the race (maybe because they were losing...?) Milly suffered from a large gash in her side and was bleeding badly. Not sure if it was her jocky smacking her with the whip a little too hard, or if maybe she cut herself as she went around the ring of tires (as this was sort of a "slolam" race). Whatever the case, we knew possibly why Milly came in last...

The next race we wagered on (only small wagers mind you!) was a little better as we could see our horse was pushing the lead right off the start. "Italiano Das" was givin' 'er, and we were sure we would be winners...but then...she fell back...way back! It seems she spent all of her energy at the start, and near the end of the long track she was well tired. Oh well, it was fun thinkin' we might win!

After a couple of hours at the races and a few beers we decided we'd had enough and headed down to the end of Anse Vata to join the rest of the gang from the Rock...a few more beers and some great swimming on a great stretch of beach. A great Sunday. I could get used to this!

Milly being led off the track :-(

Back to the beach...gettin' rid of the beers before they went bad!