59th Japanese championship keirin final

5 Responses to “Skittle Keirin”

1. bikesgonewild Says:
   December 18th, 2008 at 3:05 am

   …they went down like ’skittle pins’ while most appropriately being dressed like ’skittles candies’…

   …& red wins…it’s never bad to bet on red…

2. uglyyeti Says:
   December 18th, 2008 at 7:16 am

   Think the blue skittle took a well orchestrated dive to thin the field? Yep. There are a lot of “favors” that go on in keirin.

   I dragged my wife and her sister to the keirin track in Tachikawa this summer. To make a very long story short, I was there with two blond American girls and we stuck out big time among the male septuagenarian crowd – but it got us the red carpet treatment.

   We were approached by a well-dressed 73 year old man that identified himself as the capo of the Shinjuku Yakuza – a regular Japanese Pauly Walnuts – chopped pinkie, full back tattoo and all. After some small talk (and checking me over for gang tats and intact pinky fingers), he handed me a wager card and filled it in 2-5-9 for the next race. He told me to go to the window and give them 600Y – it wasn’t a suggestion. Since I like value my fingers more than 6 bucks, I placed the bet. To no surprise, 2-5-9 were lined up like perfect little soldiers at the front for the last lap. In the last 20m, 7 and 4 pulled up and spoiled my trifecta with a 2-7-4-5-9 finish. Though the payout was 73000Y, I was almost relieved we didn’t win – wasn’t sure how local culture dictated the “tribute” on that one. Our capo was gone after the race – he probably had to go downstairs to visit 7 and 4. My sister-in-law lives in Shibuya which is only one Tokyo subway stop or short walk from Shinjuku, so we don’t want to ruffle their local Yakuza.

   So how do you bet on this stuff? Unless you know the riders, you don’t. It’s all about who’s from what village, which keirin school, who helped who earlier and what their handlers owe the mob. Only a gossipy old man with a lot of time on his hands could have the network to find all this stuff out – like every one of the thousands of retired guys that made up the entire crowd (minus 3 Americans).

   For gaijin tourists, the only play is to bet your favorite skittle color.

3. The Gnome Says:
   December 18th, 2008 at 8:15 am

   Fuck yea Yeti. That is an excellent story. Thanks man!

4. bikesgonewild Says:
   December 19th, 2008 at 4:53 am

   …ditto, what gnome said…
   …& keirin & yakuza…synonymous…

   …& what’s ever ugly about “yeti” anyway ???…i knew the old john parker, frank the welder, brett hahn, et al “yeti” of yore…they, zap, big brian skinner, danny ‘onza’ sotelo & john grafton schooled me on so-cal mtb cool…
   …righteous fucking bunch…

   …sorry…that uglyyeti handle had me driftin’…

5. uglyyeti Says:
   December 19th, 2008 at 7:03 am

   A picture’s worth a thousand words, so here’s a pic of me and the “ugly” Yeti…

   http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h108/jgalek1/profro.jpg