I enjoyed my first greyhound race at Caister-on-Sea. A village south of Great Yarmouth, the seaside resort that my mum-in-law, my husband, and I visited about two weeks ago in England.

Yes, we were back in England. One of my favourite places, and my husband’s home or ‘kampung.’ His ‘kampung’ is not Great Yarmouth but Kent. Anyways, it was a cold and wet autumn. Autumn colours and cold, we like. Wet, not so much. Still, we worked around the weather and managed to experience and see some interesting places in the county of Norfolk. Amongst them were riding trams and trolleybuses, seeing seals on the beach/sea, and not escaping the Escape Room adventure game of ‘Wizards and the Potion Master.’

Back to greyhound racing. I placed bets on nine races out of the 12 that were run on that first Sunday morning of our holiday. Why only nine? Excitement and bewilderment. I’ve never ever been to a racing event. I’ve never ever placed bets at a live event. The process intrigued me. There was an entrance fee for the race. The entry ticket was the Race/Betting Guide. It contained information about the race times, names of the participating dogs, age, sex, best and average race times and latest times, grade range and recent results.

My husband and I, queued up, yes, we physically lined up to place bets with bookmakers/bet takers, seated behind a counter. It was exciting. Equally or more exciting was the betting jargon. The bets had to be placed verbally. I had to say, almost surreptitiously, ‘1 on 3′ or 2 on 5’ which meant £1 on dog number three or £2 on dog number five. It reminded me of movies where/when bets were placed at horse races. Although it was legal gambling, unreasonably it made feel like I was doing something wrong/illicit, which made the whole bet placement even more exciting. We picked our favourites for the first race. I chose dog number 3, ‘Rapido Camilla.’ Not based on the wealth of information I had in my Race/Betting Guide but because I liked her name and she was the youngest at just 22 months. She came first. Really. I won £2.50. Yay.

The races at Yarmouth Stadium usually had six participating dogs. Their names were listed for punters in the Race/Betting Guide. This is true. When I first saw ‘Trap Vacant’ drawn in Race 3, I thought that too was a name of a greyhound. What it actually meant was Race 3 literally had a vacant trap with only five dogs partipating. Well, to be fair to amateur me, the greyhounds had curious names like ‘Tav Tastic,’ ‘Gone At Last,’ ‘Sleek Bono,’ and ‘Zoo Da Man.’  Hmm.

The races were efficiently organised. Every race was on schedule. Bets were easy to place. There was just the right amount of pomp. Nothing over the top. But what I liked most was the stars of the event were given their due recognition. Before the start of each race, the greyhounds and their handlers did a casual walk past in front of the stands. I think some of the dogs were a little nervous. Many had their tails low, between their legs. A few peed and pooped. It was, after all, race day.  

Then at a designated spot, each greyhound was introduced to the spectators. His/her name, height and weight and trainer were announced. I didn’t know this and/or didn’t notice before. Greyhounds are handsome, muscular no-fat on them, tall dogs. They are also svelte and aerodynamic.

After the dogs were placed in their respective holding traps, the starter flagged off the race. But the traps only opened when the mechanically controlled ‘orange hare’ whizzed past the traps. Released, the greyhounds were off at breakneck speed after the hare. They ran 462m, about one and a half times around the stadium track. And, generally stopped when the hare disappeared under what looked like a pail to me. Tails wagged, and there was some barking and continued running. The dogs appeared happy after the race. Nice.

Choosing or trying to choose the ‘winning’ dog was quite comical. I didn’t bet on all 12 races because I was just bewildered and couldn’t decide which dog/dogs to select. Yes, there was enough time to ponder between races. Yes, the Race/Betting Guide offered useful information. Unfortunately, it was not much help to me. My selection process was pretty hit and miss. Three hits and six misses. My mum-in-law was the clear winner. She had the most winnings with bets on seemingly grey greyhounds with names like Lovely Jubley and Carmar Delboy. For her, it was reminiscent of a popular English television series, ‘Only Fools and Horses.’ As for my husband, he didn’t manage a single win from all the 12 races he betted on. Hmm.

All in all, it was a fun day at the races.