Dart-shooting contraption uncovered at Hong Kong horse racing track

It looks like some horses at Hong Kong's Happy Valley Racecourse narrowly averted a nasty surprise at the starting gate last week, after an elaborate remote-controlled device was discovered buried in the track prior to the start of last Wednesday's race. According to The New York Times, the contraption was rigged to shoot a dozen liquid-filled darts into the horses as they left the gate, although officials have apparently yet to determine exactly what the liquid consisted of. They're also not sure of the motivation of whoever is responsible for the device, although the speculation seems to be that it was an attempt to fix the race. Those with knowledge of the foiled plot could be in for even bigger winnings, however, with police now offering a $128,000 reward for anyone with information leading to an arrest.

[Colin @ Mar 28th 2007 8:28PM]

Bill Gates...anything nefarious must be him.

[tiuk @ Mar 28th 2007 8:32PM]

Wouldn't you think they would test horses before AND after races to combat things like this?

[tiuk @ Mar 28th 2007 8:32PM]

Wouldn't you think they would test horses before AND after races to combat things like this?

[Dan @ Mar 28th 2007 8:33PM]

I knew the black market gambler would try to rig races for even more profit, but a device to shoot dart?

Brilliant....

Haha

[elan @ Mar 28th 2007 8:52PM]

How long til the FCC approves this baby, and after that, when can I pick one up?

[DeAthWaGer @ Mar 28th 2007 10:14PM]

Wonder Showzen FTW

"I'm having chop suey tonight!!!"

[William @ Mar 28th 2007 10:27PM]

but how could they control which horses the darts hit? killing all the horses with poison darts doesn't rig the race, it makes no race.

[Chris @ Mar 28th 2007 11:52PM]

The darts were probably filled with some kind of sedative that would make the horse woozy or slow, not a lethal toxin. It'd be really obvious the race was rigged if all the other horses died and yours is the one that survived.

[SFKL @ Mar 28th 2007 10:28PM]

Nice - the reward amount is an auspicious $128k to encourage input from the local gambling community.

[Tim @ Mar 29th 2007 12:19AM]

This sounds like a contraption out of an old Looney Tunes cartoon.

[MaXxed @ Mar 29th 2007 12:56AM]

The amount is HK$1,000,000, which is US$128,000.00.

They DO check the horses before and after the race. I would have thought that the reaction of the horse to being spiked by 12 darts would have been enough for the Jockey to pull up and call for attention.

[Steven Hartig @ Mar 29th 2007 5:56PM]

Damn, that's just scary. I wouldn't want to be one of those horses.

[Randomness @ Mar 29th 2007 7:11PM]

It would have been really obvious when the thing went off, and the race would have been scrapped. IDK how anyone expected this to fix the race, unless their intention was to cancel or delay it.