Today is a day you wouldn’t have wanted to lose your shirt.  That’s because the sun is shining and we were at the races.  Yes, it has been a mighty fine day for picnicking, taking pictures, hanging out with family and friends.  Oh, and losing a few dollars backing the wrong horses.

Now if we’d bet on the right horse we thought would win we’d be buying new shirts all round.

We headed off over the hill to the Tauherenikau Race course for the traditional 2nd January country race meeting. It was a beautiful day and there were crowds of people all with their picnic paraphenalia.  We are still picnic amateurs here in New Zealand as to spend a day in the sun here requires you to either find a picnic spot in the shade or bring your own shade with you.  Not to mention your picnic table, chairs and beer fridge.

Oh yes, picnics at the races are a serious thing.

Have you ever seen so many sun awnings in one place?!

But we weren’t intimidated by the crowds and their picnic arrangements.  Where else in the world can you just set yourself up right at the edge of the race track.

We followed suit and made ourselves right at home.

There was serious business of studying the form.  Working out which horse we were going to throw away our hard earned dollars on!

Even my mother-in-law was getting in on the act.

I was too busy to be triffling with such details.  I was busy trying to take photographs through an exceedingly small hole in a fence.  I’m afraid there is much more I need to do to master the art of race horse photography.  Boy do those beasts move fast.

There was trotting (or harness racing) which I love.

They move with such speed and elegance.

But the galloping horses move even faster.

Ophs, in this case a little too fast for me!

Just as well that you can see the horses in the parade ring (or bird cage they call it here).

Aren’t they just awesome to look at.

This fella was having a well earned shower.  It was 27 degrees at the course.

And these horses are just getting ready for their races.

And these people were getting ready to lose their shirts.

But not my father-in-law he was smiling as he had definitely backed a winner.

So how did we do with this bet you might be wondering.

Let’s just say we were pleased to be wearing layers today.  That way we could peel off one as we kept losing.

The irony is that the first horse we picked as we arrived was “Pack Leader”.  A family joke as I am certainly this when it comes to keeping the bassets under control.  Shame we didn’t get as far as putting the bet on as this was an outsider that won by a short neck!

Still, it’s not the winning that matters when it comes to going to the races.  It’s the picnicking, the socialising and the lying around in the sun in between races.  A perfect holiday day out.