Hooked on Hong Kong horse racing: the men and women who live for their weekly flutter at Happy Valley
Among the high rollers and the party crowd at the city’s oldest racecourse are the regulars who live for Wednesday nights and the chance for a bit of fun. For one who bet too much, the last night of the season is the chance for a flutter
The first time Lo Kam-wing visited Hong Kong’s Happy Valley Racecourse, it was 1974 and he wasn’t supposed to be there.
Then just 14 years old, Lo and a few schoolmates made their way to the racetrack one day after school to try their luck at getting around the 18-and-over admission policy. Maybe the ticket taker didn’t care. Maybe the policy just wasn’t as strict as they expected. Whatever the case, as soon as the boys were allowed in, they disappeared quickly into the crowd, hoping not to be caught.
It was an act of daring, something the boys did to prove they weren’t afraid – even though, Lo says, they were. The boys quickly took a liking to the racecourse, though, with its lively crowds and thundering packs of horses. Soon Happy Valley, where races run most Wednesday nights from September to July, became a routine after-school destination.
These days, nobody in the grandstands would doubt Lo belongs. At 58, with wispy grey hair and big eyeglasses, Lo looks back fondly on the exhilaration races he attended in his younger years. But last week, on the last evening of the 2017-18 racing season, he still got a thrill from it all.
“It was this close,” Lo says, gesturing enthusiastically with two fingers after Letsgofree bested Celebration in the first race by barely a nose. “It’s always exciting.”