The Day Before

There was a holiday with no particular plans, so I thought, “Shall we go to Fuchu Racecourse?” Surprisingly, it’s less than a 30-minute drive from my home, but I had never been there before.

I had been encouraged to try horse racing by coworkers and heard from neighbors that “there are plenty of places for kids to play, and it’s surprisingly fun,” so I had been interested for a while. Recently, my family had also been hooked on the horse racing drama “The Royal Family,” which pushed me further to go.

As I started to look into going the next day, I discovered that it happened to be the day of the Tenno Sho, a major race. I only had basic knowledge from childhood racing games, where I knew “G1 is the best,” but since it was a chance to see a famous race live, I decided to go.

I figured I might as well try buying some tickets, so I registered for a JRA account the day before and purchased a few based on pure instinct with no knowledge. I was surprised to learn that you could buy tickets for 100 yen each. I didn’t feel like I had a chance with the trifecta bets, so I focused on the trifecta and win bets.

On the Day

Since the parking lot was likely to be crowded, I decided to take the train there. I had no idea what time I should go, but I left aiming to arrive around 10:30 am.

As soon as I arrived at the station, it was already packed with people. I was overwhelmed by how crowded it was on the day of the Tenno Sho.

Once I entered the racecourse, it was extraordinarily spacious. I learned that the turf course at Tokyo Racecourse is 2 km around, which explained the size.

Looking at the map, I saw that there was a kids' area in the middle of the course. I wondered why it was there, but since it seemed like a good place for children to play, I headed there first.
I could access the kids' area through the underground (I got a bit lost).
It had plenty of play equipment, and many families were enjoying themselves. There were many vendors, so food didn’t seem to be a problem. Being located in the middle of the course, I could see the entire circle of the race.

While checking the race schedule in the pamphlet, I saw that there are 12 races in total for the day. The Tenno Sho is actually the 11th race, starting at 15:40. I had definitely arrived way too early.

Since I couldn’t just sit and wait, I thought I might as well buy low-stake tickets for other races. I let my son and daughter choose their favorite numbers. It became quite enjoyable just to have horses to cheer for, even though I didn’t win at all. Haha.

And finally, it was time for the Tenno Sho. After watching 10 races, I had a rough idea of the flow. I even remembered the names of the jockeys who often win (C. Lemaire). I bought more tickets for the Tenno Sho, but even then it was around 1000 yen.

The results… I lost all of them. But I was very close on the trifecta.
The tickets I bought were (3, 5, 7) and (5, 7, 9), while the correct answer was (3, 7, 9).
If I had won, it would have been 50 times my bet… so close…

Looking at social media, there were many people who won.
Some had bet 10,000 yen on the trifecta and won hundreds of thousands, while others had bet 5 million on win bets and doubled their money.
The world of serious bettors is on a different scale.

I realized that having knowledge about horses and jockeys significantly changes your odds of winning.

On the way back, the crowd was really overwhelming, and I was exhausted from walking, which made it quite taxing.

A Few Days Later

When I watched the recorded episode of “The Royal Family,” a scene from Tokyo Racecourse appeared, and my whole family got excited, saying, “That’s where we went yesterday!” It was amusing that I could understand terms like “2-year-old unplaced” and “making debut” much more easily than before.

My son borrowed a horse encyclopedia from the school library. Apparently, he really liked it. We are planning to go again when there’s another big race.

I believe there are many things in life that we might never encounter unless we step out and try them, like horse racing. I want to have more experiences like that.
(The balloon ride and zip line that I tried for the first time last year were also great.)