2008 is the year of gambling and the game of choice tonight was a night out at the dogs! I’ve been to a couple of horse race events but never managed to see the dogs so I was pretty excited about tonight’s event.

The Walthamstow Greyhound Racing Stadium is one of only two remaining greyhound tracks in London (there used to be 33) with the other one being in Wimbledon. The Stadium is located a fair way out in the east (beyond tube lines even) and with the Victoria line down after 10pm in the evenings I was quite pleased that at least 12 of us turned up for tonight’s event. There are various deals you can get at the track including tonight’s super special Track Pack which for £5 we got admission to the track (normally £5), a racecard, two free drinks and 2 x £1 tote bets.

So, how to pick a winner at the dogs? Well, the advice given to me was don’t pick a dog will less than four legs (it seems obvious but still … 🙂 ), don’t pick dogs in the middle of the track and pick dogs on form.

James, D, Caroline and Amelia	Shona, Catherine, Wee James and Jon	Jenny, Amelia, Me and Wee James

Well, given that advice you would think it would be easy to pick a winner. Not so! Picking a winner proved tough though it seemed that the dogs on the inside track (most particularly barrier No. 2) were taking the wins – but we didn’t know this until the end of the night. Wish I’d known that at the beginning! In the end I only ended up with one win, which was one win more than others it seemed (like Wee James who I don’t think won one race all night) but less than others (such as Donkey and Laurence who both seemed to have some measure of success.)

But the night wasn’t just about winning – it was seeing the dogs run like crazy animals around the track. When the race was on they turned the lights down in the area we were sitting in – guess this is to let us know that some sort of action was going on on the track. Unbelievably it wasn’t until about the second or third last race that we even realised where the finish was! 🙂

Seeing the greyhounds tonight actually gave me an appreciate for these fine animals. First of all they are much bigger than I thought and second of all they are much quicker than I thought. Quite amazingly quick. Before the start of each race they actually parade the dogs in front of you to give you a chance to sample the wares. Probably something we should have done from the beginning rather than for the last race … not that we would have known what to look for!

Overall I think most people had a fun night out tonight even if we weren’t all successful. Makes a nice change from just going to the pub for a pint at the very least.