Racing was brilliant! Racing people are the same the world over no matter what language they speak. I had one bet on a tip from one of the local journos - unfortunately the jockey had extremely bad navigational skills - you don't sit third on the rails on a bog track and then give up your position 600m from home to be third last and then run on for fifth - in Australia there would have been a coronal inquiry. Rotten little short people!
The racebooks are more or less designed the same way, well the form is, so learnt a whole stack of new words - all race related. They had so much rain there was a moat of water running along the track. The hurdles were called off because it was too dangerous but in between the flat races the trotters went around and they threw up so much water it was like 'surfs up!'
It was so cold. It snowed in Bern yesterday and the sleet in the afternoon in Zürich took the locals by surprise, they said it's unusual for this time of year, certainly for Zürich. You don't say.
Afterwards (we had 9 races) they had an auction of horses that would qualify for a 2yo and 3yo race next season. It was great listening to the auctioneer and working out how much each one went for. I could have bought 17 only 4 actually sold all the others were passed in.
Average lot 15,000 CH - very cheap horses. But then prize money not up to much here. Racing is really really small.
And now I want to go to St Moritz next February for the first week. On the Sunday Jan 31 (or last Sunday in January) is the really huge international Polo comp and then it's skiing for the week (!) and then St Moritz racing on the weekend - in the snow! It would be such a good week.
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