The 4 Will Be Racing w/ Lasix & a Poison Dart

[bigmack]

Police in Hong Kong are investigating an elaborate device found embedded in the turf at a world-famous horse track apparently designed to shoot poison darts at the animals at the start of a race.A track supervisor unearthed the device on Wednesday morning while making routine checks of the starting points for races scheduled that evening at the Happy Valley racetrack, the Hong Kong Jockey Club said in a statement.

The remote-controlled shooter included 12 metal tubes, each a foot long, filled with darts buried in the grass under the spot where the starting gates would be situated for 1,200-meter (3,937-ft) races on Wednesday night.

The tubes, spaced so each would aim up at a horse, were wired together and linked to a wireless receiver, according to a local newspaper and a police source who declined to be identified.

"The obvious intent was that it was going to fire these little darts which have got some kind of chemical in it ... up from the ground up to where the horse's starting gate is," said the senior police source.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/22/hongkong.dart.reut/index.html

[ryesteve]

The remote-controlled shooter included 12 metal tubes, each a foot long, filled with darts buried in the grass under the spot where the starting gates would be situated
Perhaps we now know the real reason why the starting gate is never placed in the same place twice in this country :D

[Valuist]

Excuse me Mr. Track Maintenance Superintendant, but can you delay the start of training tomorrow morning? We have to dig holes to bury the poison darts.

I actually work with a guy who left for Hong Kong one week ago and was to come back to the U.S. this Sunday. Maybe we have ourselves a suspect.

[Tom]

How do we know the darts were not meant for the jockeys?:rolleyes:

[Ron]

I'm pretty sure they were meant to defend against attacks by Godzilla.

[Racer98]

Naw, that's japan. Where they all talk like englishmen and their voices don't match their lip motions.

In all respect, this is pretty nasty.

[RobinFromIreland]

The strange thing is the device was highly sophisticated yet it seemed could only fire all 12 darts at once, not individually.

[beertapper]

its funny for a place that prides itself so much on its integrity to let something this like slip by..

[JustRalph]

The strange thing is the device was highly sophisticated yet it seemed could only fire all 12 darts at once, not individually.

no problem, as long as the other 11 are empty, you still get the desired outcome

[RobinFromIreland]

Yeah, I think they said all but 2 were empty. Or full. Can't remember which.

[Pace Cap'n]

So if, say, the 2-horse scratches, aren't the outside horses moved in one spot? And now the 5-horse will have a date with a dart? Maybe this race-fixin' bidness ain't so easy.

[m001001]

Some background information and comment for those not too familiar with Hong Kong racing.

1. There are two race tracks in Hong Kong. Happy Valley is almost exclusively used for mid-week racing in the city center.

2. Horses are not stabled in Happy Valley nor they are trained there, except the once a month barrier trial. Horses are generally stabled and trained in Sha Tin. Layoff or retired horses are generally stabled in the Beas River facility.

3. The middle of the Happy Valley track is a public park managed by the government. The park is accessed by 3(?) underground tunnels. There is no fence between the park and the race track - just signs to tell people to stay off the race track. The idea is to allow more open space and environment.

4. I don't see how this inccident be a blow to the integrity of Hong Kong racings. Especially the device was found before racing. It shows the track employees are doing a good job checking everything before the races.

5. The local media's focus now is not whether someone is trying to cheat, but to create chaos. From yesterday's news, the device has a camera on one end, perhaps for monitoring and/or for recording the chaos.

[JPinMaryland]

They actually found the devices before they went off so get off their shit on the integrity bit.

I think they said all but two were loaded, but going from memory of the story here.