I’d never really considered how well off we are for race courses in the UK. I can’t be bothered to check but there has to be around fifty or so. Most other places that I’ve lived are much less well served. For example, South Africa about half a dozen, Korea has three and Malaysia just the three as well. Jen and I had already been to the tracks at Selangor and Penang and so this trip to Ipoh ticked off the final Malaysian track.
We live south of Kuala Lumpur and the three-hour drive north takes you around the edges of the city and then on to Ipoh. I’d booked a hotel that overlooked the racecourse and we got lucky with the view from our room.
After finding not much in the way of facilities during our visit to Penang racecourse I had emailed ahead this time asking if there was a lounge or restaurant that we could book. I received a very nice reply from a Mr. Soo who generously offered us complimentary places in their Members Lounge.
The Members Lounge had its own entrance and once we’d taken the lift to an upper floor we had a table in an air-conditioned glass-fronted area of the stand. There were plenty of tote counters and we were able to watch racing from Australia, Macau and, I think, Seoul on the screens.
As ever, so many betting opportunities is not necessarily a good thing. Our race card covered all of the televised meetings and so we had a bet in every race. It makes for a hectic afternoon and I think it would probably have been better if I’d made some or all of the bets in advance.
If there was a downside to the lounge it was that it didn’t sell beer and so I had to keep nipping down the concourse for my cans. I can live with that though. We did get afternoon tea provided, with a bit of cake and a sandwich and I think if we had arrived earlier than we did we might have got some lunch.
I ventured outside a couple of times onto the terrace but most people stayed inside the lounge and a lot didn’t even look out of the window at the live races.
Despite betting on around twenty races altogether our tactic of making selections based upon the names of the horses failed to pay off on all but one occasion. It was a pleasant afternoon though in comfortable surroundings. Cheers, Mr. Soo.
Trail of the Lion King 
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