Chapter 123: The Horse Racing Track

  Out of the hotel, take a taxi and let the driver take you to the racetrack. After a while, the driver took Ju'an to the nearest racetrack. Getting out of the car and taking a look, there didn't seem to be as many people as he had imagined. At the entrance, a light green small house with over ten windows open was the betting station for the racetrack. Looking at these scattered groups of people, there wasn't any atmosphere of the second largest sport in America. They were walking inside in twos and threes, loosely gathered together.

  Jū ān didn't plan to go gamble on horses, so he followed the crowd directly to the horse racing field. When they were almost at the entrance, he suddenly discovered that there were still people checking tickets at the door. Weren't horse racing fields supposed to be free to enter? He had no choice but to turn around and ask a black uncle behind him.

  "Sorry! I thought the horse racing field was free to enter, why are there still people checking tickets?"

  "Hey, young man! First time at the races, huh? The track is free to get in, but you gotta buy a betting slip at the entrance. The cheapest one's seven bucks, that's like your ticket in!" He patted Jian'an on the arm and pointed towards the betting station.

  He hastily thanked and ran to the small house over there, bought a cheapest ticket, and then smoothly entered the horse racing field.

  Bought a Coke in the window, drank it while looking for a seat, and when I found a seat, I was a little worried again. The front seats were close to the track, but you couldn't see the whole circle of the track, and you'd be exposed to the sun. The back seats could see the whole thing and had a shaded awning, but you couldn't see the horses clearly, so I was worried about that.

  Finally settled down, only to bear the scorching sun, found a spot in front and watched the horse racing first, then went up to avoid the sun later.

  Inside the track there is a long display screen showing today's racing schedule, and next to it is an even larger display screen that occasionally broadcasts images of the horse racing.

  Just as I sat down comfortably, I saw an old man wearing a hat and holding a small horn walking to the middle of the track and starting to blow the horn.

  Then, not far away from the entrance, a group of racehorses were led out, each with a jockey perched on its back. The jockeys were all short and stout, sitting atop the tall horses, looking like a big horse monkey. It was quite amusing to watch, but also understandable, after all, they were racing horses, if the jockeys were too tall and heavy, it would slow down the horse's speed.

  He lifted his head and saw that on one side of the track, a large pickup truck was towing a long starting gate into place. The horses were led in and loaded into the gate, and when they were all in, the gates suddenly swung open and the horses burst out, racing past Ju'an's face in the blink of an eye. The speed was so fast that it left Ju'an stunned, his hand holding the cup frozen in mid-air. Then he heard people around him shouting out the numbers on the horses' backs, cheering them on.

  As the horses rounded the bend, it was hard to see each horse's situation due to the angle of view. Fortunately, the large screen displayed the situation on the other side of the track, and Ju An saw a black thoroughbred horse with its rider already leading the second horse by two lengths. Within a minute, the leading black thoroughbred horse had turned around the bend, marking the final sprint stage. A dark bay horse was closing in on the black horse's heels, gaining speed rapidly. By the time they crossed the finish line, Ju An hadn't even seen which horse took first place; it wasn't until he looked at the ranking on the screen that he knew the dark bay horse had finally overtaken the black horse by a hair's breadth, as shown in slow motion on the screen.

  Then he heard someone cheering and scolding beside him, it was chaotic. At this time, Ju An picked up the cola and walked towards the back row to find a good spot with a clear view for the next game.

  The stands above were empty and cold, with few people. However, there were many vacant seats. Ju An casually found a seat to sit down, sipping the Coke in her hand, waiting for the start of the next match. She glanced at the big screen showing that the next match was still more than 20 minutes away, so she listlessly turned her head around, looking around.

  Everyone else was chatting in groups of three to five, but Ju An sat alone on the grandstand, turning his head to look around, which made him stand out. After looking around for a while, an old man with a white beard and whiskers walked over and said to Ju An, "Hey! Young man, first time at the racetrack?"

  An old man wearing cowboy pants and a cowboy hat, dressed like a farm owner, smiled and said: "First time at the horse racing track to watch the game, everything feels fresh, so take a look around."

  The old man smiled and said, "I'll sit next to you, don't mind, do you?" Looking at Ju An smiling and nodding, the old man sat down beside him and said, "Generally, Asian faces that come here are in groups with tour groups, but you're alone, so it's quite special. Let's chat."

  "Ha ha, I'm not here for tourism," replied Ju An with a smile. "I have my own ranch and am quite interested in horses, so I came to take a look. I also raise dozens of Quarter Horses myself."

  The old man's face was full of surprise: "That's really rare, my name is Brad, I'm a horse farm owner, just in the suburbs of Los Angeles, I have raised some pure-blooded horses and some horses that people have entrusted to me. Today, one of my three-year-old little horses came to participate in the competition, that's my treasure."

  "Hi, I'm An. My ranch is in Montana and we mainly raise cattle. The horses are mostly Quarter Horses used for the ranch."

  Brad said: "Quater is good on the ranch, and Quater still has a little advantage on the quarter mile. On longer distances, purebred horses can't be beaten. Generally, thoroughbreds dominate the racing world."

  "Earlier, I took a look ahead and the horses were galloping out of their stalls like they were flashing right in front of me, it was so fast. It made me want to get a purebred horse to raise myself."

  Brad laughed and said, "Raising a thoroughbred horse takes a lot of time and money. Let's not talk about the price of a horse, just the daily maintenance costs. Thoroughbreds are too expensive, with just the cost of feed reaching almost $100 per day, and that's during normal times. During competitions, it can reach $300 per day. Not to mention other things, like the bandages on the horse's legs for each race, which cost tens of dollars. And thoroughbred horses have very thin skin, just like humans, so a mosquito bite can cause a big swelling. At night, they need to wear anti-mosquito clothing, and every day they also need to swim several thousand meters in the pool."

  "Actually costs so much money?" Ju An asked in surprise, this is more than his own daily food expenses, and a horse lives a better life than he has for half his life.

  "Of course, if you just want to raise a purebred horse for fun, you don't need such good maintenance, but if you want your horse to compete on the track, it must be maintained like this. My farm is mostly supported by breeding young horses and boarding horses for others, it's really expensive. However, if your horse can win a championship, its value will immediately increase several times, and the prize money for the three major championships each year is also in the millions, with the Breeder's Cup having a top prize of $5 million." Brad said, looking at the track.

  "Ah, this is a good business! It seems I'll have to get a few pure-bloods for myself too." As he spoke, his hand instinctively went up to touch the pearl at his neck.

  Brad listened to Ju An's words and shook his head with a smile, saying: "It's indeed a good business, but just in the US alone, more than 10,000 thoroughbred horses are born every year. Less than one percent of them can actually make it onto the track, and those that win championships are auctioned off as soon as they're weaned, with prices starting at $200,000. And champion stallions cost tens of thousands of dollars to breed just once. Unfortunately, I've never encountered a horse like that in my lifetime."

  The old man said that the interest has really come, you can't say I'm not good enough, we still have helpers, right? The space in the pearl is not very effective against adult animals, but it's probably useful against young horses that are still developing. When the time comes, buy a few pure-blooded young horses and put them in, by the time they're three years old, who knows, maybe they'll be money-making machines!

  Having a nice dream, was interrupted by the old man, the old man facing Ju An began to sell his own horse: "If you want to buy a horse, it's okay to take a look at my horse farm, they're all good little guys, one of my horses will participate in the competition today, which is the next game".

  An old man and a young boy were chatting like this when the horn in the middle of the track sounded again, and a new batch of horses was led out from the gate.

  The old man pointed to a blue horse and said to Ju An, "That's my horse, named Flying Train, it's quite fast." After finishing speaking, he took out a telescope from his pocket, looked at it for a while, then handed the telescope to Ju An and pointed to the horse in the field.

  "Ah, what a fine horse!"

  The old man proudly said to Ju An: "The high-speed train is the fastest horse in my stable now, this time it's the first time to participate in the competition, I hope to get a good ranking, of course, the champion is better".

  He handed the binoculars back to the old man, who was watching as horse after horse pushed into the starting gate. When the gates opened, the old man's horse, Flying Train, burst out, but it wasn't fast enough and only managed to grab fifth place. An Wen and the old man began cheering on Flying Train together, with the old man anxiously muttering: Faster! Baby! You can do it! Just a little bit more!

  After a lap of racing, the speedy train achieved second place, and the old man looked extremely delighted. He even invited Ju An to visit his horse's stable at the racecourse.

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