(Source: HKJC)

Think of it as a board game- a really BIG inter-active board game with a touch screen and where you need a Smart Card to play- along with your set of smarts.

(Source: Walls)

Some of you might remember our parents playing the old racing board game called Totopoly which was based on Monopoly and where you could “own” stables, throw the dice- literally- and move your horses around.

It was a great family game to play on a rainy Sunday and where friends could join in.

(Source: Holyes Online)

Fast forward to today…A group of us took our seats around one of two IBU boards at Adrenaline, the club at Happy Valley Racecourse, and decided to play against each other starting from the first race.

After deciding that this didn’t work for us, we came up with a “system” from race three onwards where, by pooling our finances and playing as a team, we had a far greater chance of winning. We felt like Charlie Sheen with an inside run.

(Source: Badabing Badabambadaboom)

Even better was winning over some of the ladies who were watching- and learning- what we were doing and how these boards can be used- which, like one’s imagination, has no boundaries and no rules.

Frankly, I think we might even surprise the Hong Kong Jockey Club- the only racing club in the world to make this new experience in racing available to relative newbies to the sport like us and those who live and breathe it- with ways in which IBU can be used.

In a nutshell, everything you want to know about any horse in any of the races being run is all there at your fingertips plus the statistics, the winning percentages of the trainer-jockey combination, trackwork of the horse, its form over the distance it is tackling etc and, even more importantly, how much we could win for our investment.

What we did was work out our selections as a team and once we were in the game, we then compared our choices with those of the professional tipsters and what paddock expert Jenny Chapman had selected. Jenny has a remarkable record of throwing in a real outsider into her tips.

How did we do? Perhaps it was dumb beginners luck or very smart beginners luck, but there are those times when one needs to make their own luck and how you and your friends use the information at your fingertips and then watch the race unfold.

At the other IBU table, our new ladyfriends, took baby steps by picking jockeys in each race based on what they had learnt about them and their overall form.

This night, their jockey of choice was Zac Purton who rode three winners that night including the winners of the last two races.

(Source: SCMP)

Will we be at the IBU tables again? What do you think?

We reckon we have worked out our own system, we are confident of winning plus we have a date at Adrenaline this Wednesday with our new IBU lady friends.

Our chances with them? A winning one. After all, you need to be in it to win it, baby!