Chepstow

[jnunan4759]

I was curious to see Chepstow in the news. Not many people know about it but I have gone there on numerous occasions when I worked in Bristol, UK. It's in Wales and Wales reminded me of West Virginia because of the hills. One of the first things I asked was "Do you have coal ?". And they do.

Chepstow is kind of a small track and you had to wear a suit to go into the nicest part of it. It was my first introduction to the "Tic-Tac" man and I was completely freaked-out. I'm still fascinated by those guys.
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The first time I went I got lunch, a sandwich. But they were like strange sandwiches, like cucumber. Not like ham and cheese. I had to sit at like a card table and was with some people I didn't know. Very nice, very British and they had no clue who was running except for the horse they owned. They brought me my cucumber sandwich and it had all the crust trimmed off the bread.

After the race you would go down to a paddock and they'd announce the first 3 finishers and everybody would applaud each as they walked them around with jockey's up.

I found out Welsh is an unintelligible language. Unless you grow up there it can't be heard, spoken or understood. You drive down the road and see signs and you just say "What the hell is that?".

All in all, I had a nice time there. I went back almost every chance I could. It was like going through a worm-hole, it was so different for me. Tons of jumpers. I also learned the two most profitable words in British jump racing, Martin Pipe.