In Spain there are no bookies in the high street and although online betting is growing, most of the money changes hands on-course. To make life a little more complicated, prices do not appear on the monitors at the course until about ten minutes before the race. With each race scheduled on the half-hour we had just enough time to watch the race then go to the paddock and view the next group of horses, then on to one of the betting booths to place a bet and back to the stand just in time for starter’s orders. Apart from rendering the hospitality tents surplus to requirements it also meant that when we looked at the horses in the paddock we had no idea of the odds on any of them. So our expertise was surely tested, having to rely on the form and breeding of the horse, the shape of its neck and hind quarters, how it behaved in the paddock or, in my case, whether it had an amusing name or the jockey looked a friendly sort. By the way, unlike in the UK, races include both male and female jockeys. After making a decision on the horse you arrive at the betting booth to see the price offered with very little time to change your mind if you don’t like the odds.

Minimum bet is one euro and in addition to just betting on the winner there are a whole series of familiar combinations which appeared very popular, such as place bets, 1^st and 2^nd reversibles, doubles and trebles etc.

Ticket prices range from €9 to €30, available at the course on race day from 10am onwards. The most expensive ticket gives you access to the stand by the finishing line and a number of hospitality tents, a different place to park your car and entrance to the inner paddock where you can view the riders and horses close up. We paid the extra to get access to the paddock, only to find that while the horses and riders paraded round a small circuit we were on the inside of the ring and those paying €9 were on the outside. Unless in my ignorance one side of the horse is more important than the other, it doesn’t warrant the extra cost.

What is worth extra is the stand by the finishing line. Especially if it is your horse with the daft name that makes a late run in the final furlong to come thundering through and nick it at the line in a photo finish.

Seasons/races

During the spring season from March until June, race meetings take place every Sunday at 11am and from late April onward on Friday evening. There is also a summer season from July to August with races on Thursday evenings.

Transport

Only ten minutes’ drive from the city centre up the A6 at Aravaca. There is also a free bus service from Moncloa on race days or bus 162 Moncloa – El Barrial.

Tickets

Prices: €9, €12, €30 available at the course on race day, online at www.entradas.com or tel: 902 488 488

Further information from:

www.hipodromodezarzuela.es

When I first began to ask around what people knew about horse racing in Madrid, many people responded to the tune of: “I didn’t know there was one in Madrid”, “I think it’s closed” or “Yeah, but it’s not very popular”.

The latter is probably true. One of the first things that would strike any racing fan who comes to Spain is that the sport is not very big here. There are at most only ten courses in the whole country. In fact, the course in Madrid was closed for nine years from 1996 when a lack of interest made it economically unviable. When it reopened in 2005 it was to be under state control with the intention of selling it off to private enterprise. There weren’t any takers and it remains to this day effectively a nationalised racecourse run by a number of state bodies including the National Lottery. Here, races are just as likely to be sponsored by the Ministry of Environment and Rural Affairs as they are Vodafone or William Hill.

Maybe it doesn’t make much money, but thankfully it’s kept open as part of the national heritage. Situated only ten minutes by bus or car from Madrid city centre, the Hipódromo de la Zarzuela is a charming track with spectacular views across the El Pardo parkland in one direction and to the Madrid city skyline in the other. The impressive Art Deco grandstands, styled on the San Siro in Milan and now being renovated, were built by the engineer Eduardo Torroja for the opening in 1941. And, knowing the weather in Madrid, I was surprised to find the course – in spring at least – is a lush green turf.

We decided to go to the second meeting of the year, in April, when racing takes place every Sunday from 11am to 2pm. From March to June they race on a turf track, changing to sand in July and August when there are also floodlit night races. I say we, as I thought it best to take someone along with some knowhow when it comes to racehorses, especially as I intended to have a flutter on every race. It’s also worth swotting up on the vocab. Even if you consider yourself to be a reasonable Spanish speaker, as I do, I can honestly say that after ten years in Spain I’ve never had cause to know the Spanish for “colt”, “gelding” or “filly”.

It was a Spanish friend of mine who referred to the races as a bit “elitist”. To be honest, that’s always been my impression of horse racing in general, but I was to be pleasantly surprised by the mix of people on the day I went. There were one or two Barbours and green wellies but no noticeable dress code and a good relaxed atmosphere overall. There are plenty of places to eat and drink, three large grandstands, gardens and playgrounds for the kids.

Mind you, we didn’t have a great deal of time to relax. Determined to get the most out of the price of our tickets, we found ourselves busily trotting from one place to another in an effort to keep up with the six races scheduled for the day…

Read Part Two

Normally these things just pass me by; it’s not that I don’t care – I do – but they are often about unknown regions of Spain or the far South. We know that things vary in Spain; they can vary from town to town and village to village, let alone region to region. So, I guess, it’s really a case of “Don’t know, don’t care”.

Now last week on one of these programmes I heard Alicante mentioned, I heard Alicante hospital mentioned, I heard Valencia mentioned and the Costa Blanca. That’s on my doorstep, that’s about my area. Now I do care and I care very much.

I suppose I wouldn’t worry too much if what was being portrayed was correct, but in many cases it was either exaggerated or totally false.

We have to ask at this stage: why are the programmes being shown, why are they being repeated on a fairly regular basis, why are they always so negative? Now you may think this is Orwellian, but the UK government is seeing more and more people at retirement age leaving the UK (and many below the normal retirement age). Where these people are properly registered in Spain the UK government is having to make a contribution to the Spanish health system for their care. Even if they are not properly registered the money they get from their UK pension is being spent in Spain and IVA is being received by the Spanish government. The UK is losing a considerable amount in VAT. With these thoughts in mind I leave the conclusion to you!

Let’s have a look at some of the individual points generally raised in these programmes:

• The Spanish hate us!
Totally incorrect as a blanket statement. My wife and I and all our friends have found the Spanish people to be wonderful, family orientated, caring and considerate. I have to put a rider here! If a Brit moves to Australia with a bad attitude the term quickly used is ‘whinging Pom’. If the same thing happens in Spain the attitude just becomes less friendly. You get what you give!

• The Spanish medical service doesn’t provide good service or good treatment!
You can only speak as you find and my answer is that it does. I had a bad accident breaking four ribs, and badly cutting my face and lips. I was operated on immediately for the damage to my face with almost no scar left. I was in intensive care for two days and they arranged for a nurse who spoke English to be with me overnight. They were superb and this was under their National Health! This is not an isolated story; I am aware of many people who have had superb service from the Spanish medical system. There is, however, a culture difference. The Spanish still generally expect to look after their elderly relatives and they also expect to assist with the care of their relatives who are staying in hospital. They think it is the right thing to do, and who are we to argue with them?

• There is no medical care for expats in Spain!
A difficult one, this.
- In certain regions of Spain you can register, at any age, for medical care if you live permanently in Spain. All you need is to be on the padrón.
- If you are over retirement age and in receipt of a pension, medical care is automatic. You just need to register. That applies all over Spain.
- Private health care is much cheaper than in the UK. We pay around €1000 per annum for the pair of us for FULL private health care.

• Britons are treated badly in the Spanish health system!
I have never experienced this either on the private system or the National Health system and I have never heard of anybody else experiencing it. I would suggest the incidents portrayed in the programmes have one of three causes. Either it was friction between two individuals (which can happen anywhere), bad attitude on the part of the patient or an individual doctor, or lack of understanding. Which brings us to the next point…

• They don’t speak English!
Hello, real world calling! This is Spain, they speak Spanish and if you try they will try, but don’t expect the language to be English. We can take this further; I have been to UK hospitals where I have found it difficult to understand what the doctor is telling me! I also wonder, if a foreigner comes to the UK and cannot speak English, how quickly a doctor and nurse who speaks their language will be found. It is easy to forget that the two primary international languages of the world are Spanish and English and probably in that order.

Hey, we don’t want to get bored and I really could go on refuting many aspects of these so-called documentary programmes. Of course things can go wrong, of course people can receive bad treatment, of course the language barrier is difficult – but with the right attitude it can all be overcome and work well. The telly doesn’t always tell the exact truth, it provides stories which have to be sensationalised to be attractive and therefore the message can become distorted. “Come and see for yourself” is the answer!

Author: Richard

Richard is a retired police officer who has lived in Spain for several years in a small village with his wife and loads of pets. He has travelled widely, including to the Far East and most of Europe. Richard runs, in association with the English Speaking Club in El Campello, a forum moderated by local people dedicated to providing help and assistance to visitors, residents and potential residents on the Costa Blanca. http://www.myvicinity.co.uk

Spinach, cauliflower, carrot? My favourite type! (Yuck!)

Here in Andalucía (except in the cities, where a whole range is available) generally we are stuck with just two types: the ones with just cheese and tomato paste, which I guess would be the Spanish equivalent of the universal Margherita… and the ones with fish! You can have them with tuna, or with caballa (which tastes surprisingly like tuna when “pizzarised”) or ask for them without tuna (and you’ll get caballa!).

Recently frozen pizzas have become available in supermarkets and even in our small shops here in Pruna and the choice is thus extended. However, the best way to eat pizzas here is to make your own. Frozen bases are available for the less adventurous.

We have been spoiled by our time in America who make (apologies to all Italians and Italian pizza lovers) simply the best. Their spicy meat based pizzas are to die for and I don’t have to suffer the “over-crispy crust” foibles of the Spanish, whose crusts are so crispy that they shatter when you bite or cut them. However, when we make our own we can have just what we want on them (and get the topping right to the edge, unlike the majority of Italian pizzas which have acres of untopped crust around them)

As a comment on the fish tastes of the Spanish, here in Andalucía it is just about impossible to buy any savoury pastry dish that doesn’t contain tuna or something that tastes the same. In shops you can see trays of interesting looking empanadas in many varieties of shape, but unfortunately no variety of filling! I understand that in the east of Spain (Alicante and around) that there are available many varieties of meat-filled pastry, but here we are stuck with tuna.

For most people the dictionary definition of the words “relax”, “retire” or “leisure property” embrace a number of distinct and altogether gentler notions of “peace”, “escape” and “tranquillity”. Such notions are entirely at odds with nerve-jangling words such as “stress”, “nightmare”, “demolition” or “fraud”.

However, in Spain, it seems that in certain quarters there’s a desire to reduce the ability of would-be expats to achieve their goal. So much so that I am forced to ask, “Why would you buy in Spain?”

A report today carried on the excellent Expatica service noted that Spain’s new environmental tsar, Antonio Vercher, is quoted as saying in the Spanish daily El País that buyers of illegally-built homes are to be considered as guilty of playing a part in the scam.

What?

A quick check of the date on my daily newspaper expecting to see a flurry of “spaghetti tree harvest” and “driving test for dogs” stories to coincide with the 1 April dateline confirms that it is actually the penultimate day of October 2006.

It is argued that such a step by Sr Vercher is aimed at halting the property speculation which is believed to be the root cause of the building of an estimated 100,000 illegal homes across Spain. Apparently, Vercher has further indicated that whilst some – yet to be specified – compensation will be paid to those owners who lose their properties, he will knock down their homes.

Isn’t that like blaming turkeys for Christmas?

Does this mean that owners who discover their properties have been built without the correct licences could now actually face demolition? Are both the illegal developer and the owner to be punished for the fraud clearly not perpetrated by the latter? The answer to both of these questions appears to be “yes”.

There was a collective exhalation of breath following Operation Malaya – which exposed the corruption in Marbella – in the expectation that finally the local county council in Seville could rectify the planning position on several thousand properties in its autonomous region. It seems that the rug may have been well and truly pulled on the long-expected plans of the Junta and the Management Committee which currently runs Marbella.

The Spanish administration appears to be taking the unusual step of saying that unfortunate or hoodwinked buyers are simply not innocent parties. However, there is no suggestion that their culpability has the effect of exonerating the developer or promoter?

This news comes on the same day that Overseas Property Professional weekly news (opp.org.uk) reports, that Spain’s government has launched a policy of zero tolerance towards the ever-increasing number of senior officials in Spain’s major resorts who have been removed from office as a result of being implicated in cases of planning irregularities. This invariably means that land which broadly equates to “green belt” in the UK, has been converted into “urban” land and built on.

Sorry!  Doesn’t that sound as if someone is eating the same piece of cake twice? The logic being: “If we are going to blame someone, then what’s the harm in blaming everyone?”

Expect a flurry of “Land Grab”-type law cases being referred to the European Court by purchasers anxious not to see their life savings junked in a pile of rubble as a result of this monumentally ill-conceived action by the Spanish government.

As Kevin Costner is told in Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.” The same is true of the willingness and desire of Northern Europeans for leisure or relocation property in Spain.

Those familiar with my jottings over the years – and it’s been five years since my family sought and found a new life in Spain – will know that I have a virtually limitless list of reasons for living or spending the lion’s share of your year in Spain. Are the quality of life, the healthcare, the transportation links, the infrastructure, the sport, the food, and the wine to be compromised by this sinister little piece of buck-passing?

The arguments will rumble on but to my mind there are a handful of very basic lessons that the new would-be purchaser simply must learn from this saga:

1. We will never tire of telling clients that they must not under any circumstances appoint their lawyer as a result of a recommendation from the estate agent who is selling to them. Contrary to popular opinion, not all agents are fire-breathing egocentrics who are only interested in their commission; there are many sensible agents who see the potential for conflict of interests and would prefer not to see themselves in problems later on.
2. Your local lawyer needs to be “driven” to ensure that they turn over as many stones as may be required to ensure that all your questions are thoroughly answered and that your interests are properly protected.
3. The agreement you sign must comprehensively detail the specifics of the property being purchased. This is particularly relevant to an off-plan purchase, where the specification of the property – its internal and external m², views, gardens, configuration of rooms, qualities of bathroom and kitchen fittings and equipment, floor and wardrobe finishes etc – must be specified in as much detail as possible.
4. Ensure that the Bank Guarantees that each developer is required by law to offer a purchaser are in place. They need to be completed to cover the entire amount that you are paying – which will mean they will need amending over the course of your build out to reflect the further payments that you have made. Finally, they should expire only after the formal and legally possible completion by you – meaning that the property is delivered to you free from defective title, wholly in conformity with the specification contained in the purchase contract and in a sound condition.
5. Ensure that the decennial – or 10-year – post-build insurance is properly in place. If you are purchasing from the initial purchaser, then ensure that this insurance  – or more importantly the benefit of it – is assigned to you, thereby protecting your interests should you need to make a subsequent claim under it.

© Mark F R Wilkins 2006 (Marbella)

Author: Mark Wilkins

Mark F R Wilkins Mark F R Wilkins The Rights Group SL Email: mark(AT)therightsgroup.com Website: www.therightsgroup.com Tel.: +34 600 343 917