Lions Race Day 2007

Well, as posted previously, Saturday saw Bee & myself plus some friends attend the Brisbane Lions Race Day @ Doomben Racecourse. It was a day of races sponsored by the Brisbane Lions with each race being named after a Lions sponsor or the Lions themself and with a reasonably big do put on for those willing to attend.

The day started with the seemingly obligatory transport mess up. Brad had a brainwave of catching the train from Coorparoo Railway Station so we didn't have to change trains in the city. While the thought was good the implementation was bad... it seemed Queensland Rail were performing track work on that line and we ended up having to bus it over to Dutton Park Railway Station (yes just down the road from my house! grr!) and then change in the city anyway. Here's a shot of us waiting for the bus...



Included in our ticket price was entry to the racecourse, buffet lunch and some drinks. We had our own fenced off area on the Lawn with a band, lots of under cover tables and our own tote to be on! It did look pretty nicely laid out...



Even though the drink cards only gave you 4 beers and a soft drink (or 2 beers, 2 wines and a soft drink) we all managed to not buy a drink all day which was good. All the ladies (shown below), despite complaining about the bitterness of the free wine, all were experiencing alcohol related silliness at some point during the day.



They also managed to bet on horses that actually came somewhere unlike Brad and myself who, despite careful application of thoughts and ideas, ended up negative for the day. Part of the fun was recording everyone's bets on each race and jotting down their profit (or deficit!) at the end of each race. Overall for the day I came last in the profit stakes with $-38 or so and Brad was 2nd last with $-30 or so. Lore, Bee & Ben all managed a positive return although Bee's was only $0.60 and Lore, who won overall, was only about $4. $2 place bets on horses is against the spirit of gambling in my opinion... but it managed to work! Grr!

Despite the initial excitement about player involvement it was obvious early this wasn't to be as high as we were all expecting. A fair few of the less senior players to be fair hung around our fenced off area for a long time and seemed to be having a good time...



... but the senior players were basically a no show. I think we saw Nigel Lappin, Simon Black & Jamie Charman in our area for about 30 seconds in total before they headed straight back out again. Brownie and Chris Johnson were only seen when we were leaving. There was a bigger $$$ Lions section somewhere else during the day and we're all assuming the senior players were there to keep the rich cats happy... which was disappointing really.

All in all though it was a top day and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Getting dressed up and doing something new was a lot of fun and I think everyone in the group had a good time. Looking forward to the chance to do it all again next year now!

The rest of the photos can be found by clicking here or by clicking on the Photo Album Image in the sidebar on the right...