I met up with my Dad at Perth Racecourse yesterday. He had the opportunity to get down, and I also happened to be passing at the same time, so dropped in to see him (we live 6 hours apart - so it was a good opportunity to meet up).
Perth is a small city in Scotland. It was my first time at the racecourse there. It was small, but really nice. And the weather was excellent for Scotland - 26 degrees centigrade - cant complain at that !
The red circle in the pic above is the finish line. Being a small race course we were able to get quite close to the finish line for each race, which is quite nice.
The races only run so many time a year, and sundays event was billed as a family day. We were in the 'grandstand' area - which you can see above. The grand stand is quite quaint. It was fairly busy as can be seen.
And the picture above looks over towards the newer stand. So in terms of main buildings - thats it really, so its smaller than many other courses - but to me that makes it more intimate and personal. You can get closer to the horses, the riding and the jockeys.
As can be seen in all the pics, the weather was just phenomenal. We had to dive for shade after each race, get a drink, make our bets, and then pop back out quickly to catch the next one. Above you can see one of the winners having just crossed the finishing line.
It was a hurdles day at Perth on Sunday, so the horses were jumping over fences. I'm glad to say that the fences at Perth are quite small, so it was great to see that no horses fell or got injured.
My dad quite likes the races, so we do try to go a few times a year, usually to Musselburgh, which is close to where I live in Edinburgh. When we go, we place our bets with the track side bookies. You can see a few above, its quite cool as they change the prices live, and depending on which one you go to you can often get better odds for your bet. YOU just have to watch the live prices and swoop when you like one you see.
I did pretty good. There were 7 races and I got 2 winners and a second. I normally plan on loosing all of my money (because I no nothing about horses). But yesterday I only lost 20% of the cash I'd set aside for betting. And my dad did a bit better - he came out slightly up.
I was quite surprised to see that the crowds really thinned out by about 4pm, noting that the last race was at 5.15pm. You can see the mess left behind by many out drinking in the sun. There was also one poor lad who had drank too much and the police had taken him to a point of safety, where he was completely passed out - but in safe hands ! To much to drink in the hot sun !
The pic above was taken towards the end of the day. A lot of seagulls moved in as can be seen, and they must have known that the crowds were going to clear leaving behind some pickings for them in the grounds. I've seen them do that here at football grounds too in Scotland. Clever birds !!
Well, we had a great day out, and it was good to catch-up with my Dad. After the last race, we caught the shuttle bus back into Perth, so we could go our separate ways again. It was well worth the trip - even if I did come home beetroot in colour from the sun !
