I hope you won enough to buy the plane ticket home!
I still follow a bit of horse racing. Loved having a punt at the races, but it's just impossible to win consistently to make it worthwhile.
I gave up serious gambling after a particular race in Singapore. It started off with 7 runners, but 3 were scratched for certain reasons, leaving 4, with an obvious favourite. In the end I still couldn't pick a winner. So my friends and me had this post race discussion.
You see in football, the Chinese have made it very easy to bet with the Asian handicap. You either 'eat or give' ball as they term it.
'Eat' means you take the handicap, 'give' means you take the favourite. eg Man Utd v Burnley, handicap -1.5. Meaning the game starts at Man Utd 0 Nurnley1.5. To win, United has to win by 2 clear goals or more - 2-0 would equate MU 2 Burnley1.5. Alternatively you 'eat' that means taking Burnley and so long as Utd fail to win by 2 or more, any other result means you win. The stake being as close to level. So you bet 100, you'd win 100. Sometimes a bit lesser, depending on the betting.
So the Chinese made it easy for the serious punter. A choice of 2. And even with this, it's so difficult to win money consistently. So how is 1 going to win money in horse racing where there's a field of say 8-12 runners at any 1 time? Even with 4, we couldn't win. So from that day, I only bet occasionally on the 'ponies.'
I'd rather bet on Notts screwing up, now that's a winning tip, you should follow.