It’s difficult to explain my feelings about horse racing. They are very mixed. Like nuts. Let’s just say that being part of horse racing, especially in Australia, was great fun when extremely inebriated and around those who saw people like my friend Norman and myself as a very convenient meal ticket who paid for lunches, dinners, ladies and six star nights out.
Of course, some lifelong friendships were made along the way, but being around the horse racing world taught me much about human behaviour, especially greed, how class could never be bought, those racing groupies looking for a good catch and to trust almost no one.
It was my friend Norman who sold me on horse racing when we were both with Universal Music.
He apparently had horses all around the world, and was particularly friendly with a British Bloodstock agent. Their stories sounded wonderful.
No one ever seemed to lose and having dinners in London at private clubs like Aspinall’s had me sold on this pastime.
It was good while it lasted and with the gambling kept in check.
A couple of short years later, I learned the hard way that there are horses and there are “horses” and there are no certainties in life.
*Looking back, I was knee deep in the music industry and supposedly leading a Rock and Roll lifestyle I wasn’t even aware of and a marriage on the rocks, but with everything finally falling apart when crossing paths with horse racing and “those with the tips” and the “inside information”.
Life was a blur for almost two years until I realised that I needed help and understanding that only I could help myself. I pried myself away from most of the racing crowd and even if I did run into them didn’t want any part of their stories.
These days- and no pun intended- I see many “small people” in Hong Kong thinking that they are “big players” in horse racing, when most are clueless about how it all works as a business and with no idea about the dangers of listening to gossip and receiving too much information.
I have a great deal of respect for most riders and trainers as horse racing is their livelihood and if they can beat “the system” and win, great.
I still don’t understand how on earth anyone believes that “jockeys don’t bet” when everyone around them can.
I also don’t understand how the current racing model can be sustained during these post pandemic times and when money is too tight to mention. But, as with far more popular industries, horse racing is where the rich get richer, the poor get screwed over by entering a pastime that holds extremely little interest to most people under forty and is in dire need of change.
But do those currently running racing clubs know how to change?
I don’t think they do.
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