Philip, a friend and ex-colleague who worked at the Singapore Turf Club texted me one evening asking me if I knew anyone who’s female and is a blogger/prolific in the social networks. The only one whom I can think of at that time was another friend, Belinda, who provided me many opportunities to shoot at events which otherwise I had no access to, or don’t know about. I introduced her to Philip and found that the Turf Club was organising a Ladies’ Night at their premises and wanted some ladies to cover the event in social media.
Through events such as these, the Turf Club intends to bring across the message that it’s not only for punters but also for other people who can turn up simply to have fun watching the races.
The event was held on 14 Dec 2012, and this is a ladies’ night and I am no female, but the ladies can invite their friends of either gender so I got to go along to have a look as well.
Something interesting was happening up in the skies when I arrived. Half of it is bright from the setting sun, while the other half is dark from what looked like an incoming storm (which thankfully didn’t come.)
After a quick bite of the buffet provided, it’s time to hit the tracks for the races. As I didn’t want to lug along a full SLR + telephoto zoom setup, I decided on just my Nikon 1 V1, the 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, the 18.5mm f/1.8, the FT-1 adaptor and the Nikkor AF-S 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G.
Unfortunately, even with the V1’s 2.7x crop factor when using the FT-1 adaptor and regular Nikkor lenses, I am still unable to get a good enough reach. The relatively slow lens also limited my shutter speeds. Too late now, so I had to make the best out of it. A bit of cropping and panning did the trick, but I had to take many shots to maximize my chances of success.
Shortly after I realised 2 ladies from my table, Janice and Sylvia had betted on Horse No. 2 and thus won the race. They were jubilant over their win!
I also took shots of the punters as well as other things which are happening.
We also had a tour of the owner’s lounge where you can enjoy the races in air-conditioned comfort, and the parade ring, where the jockeys parade their horses in front of the punters.
Before long, it was time for the last race of the evening. The winner of this race was David Soo Khoon Beng, the jockey of horse No. 8.
Thanks to Philip for the invitation! It was a fun night.