Hater Depot
Mar 24th, 2007, 01:23 AM
http://sport.independent.co.uk/general/article2383811.ece
Hong Kong triads, or organised-crime gangs, are believed to be behind a sinister and elaborate poison-dart device embedded in the turf near the starting point for races at the Happy Valley racecourse.
During a routine examination of the track an inspector came across the poison dart shooter, which had 12 metal tubes, each around a foot long, filled with darts buried in the grass under the spot where the starting stalls would be placed for the three races over 1,200 metres (six furlongs) on Wednesday night's card, the Hong Kong Jockey Club said in a statement.
Happy Valley and Sha Tin are Hong Kong's two tracks. Turnover on a single day's racing in Hong Kong can outstrip the income many European or American courses generate in a whole year. A single race here can take in nearly £20m and the gambling-mad people of Hong Kong spend £5.4bn a year on the racing.
The bizarre device could have harmed one, a few or all of the horses in the stalls. The tubes were wired together and linked to a wireless receiver, and spaced in a way that each tube would aim upwards at the horse standing overhead.
"The full nature of the device and its intended purpose has not been established. However, no explosives were found," the Jockey Club statement ran.
Well, I guess you can't have everything.
Hong Kong triads, or organised-crime gangs, are believed to be behind a sinister and elaborate poison-dart device embedded in the turf near the starting point for races at the Happy Valley racecourse.
During a routine examination of the track an inspector came across the poison dart shooter, which had 12 metal tubes, each around a foot long, filled with darts buried in the grass under the spot where the starting stalls would be placed for the three races over 1,200 metres (six furlongs) on Wednesday night's card, the Hong Kong Jockey Club said in a statement.
Happy Valley and Sha Tin are Hong Kong's two tracks. Turnover on a single day's racing in Hong Kong can outstrip the income many European or American courses generate in a whole year. A single race here can take in nearly £20m and the gambling-mad people of Hong Kong spend £5.4bn a year on the racing.
The bizarre device could have harmed one, a few or all of the horses in the stalls. The tubes were wired together and linked to a wireless receiver, and spaced in a way that each tube would aim upwards at the horse standing overhead.
"The full nature of the device and its intended purpose has not been established. However, no explosives were found," the Jockey Club statement ran.
Well, I guess you can't have everything.