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The new way of looking at horse racing

HongKong racing: Here, now and looking ahead

It should come as no surprise by now to especially local racing fans, but it still does- the one all-weather night race meeting held at Shatin each year, and which almost always develops into some laisee packet for the lesser lights in Hong Kong racing.



Last Wednesday night’s results unfolded to that familiar script with doubles for Ruan Maia, below, and Derek Leung and a winner each for Vincent CY Ho, Vagner Borges and Matthew Chadwick

Leading jockey Zac Purton aka The Influencer and now with a fan club started for him on Instagram who was handicapped out of most of the races through bad barrier draws, didn’t ride a winner whereas Joao Moreira took this meeting to start serving out a two day suspension for careless riding. If one needed proof that Hong Kong racing can still hum along very nicely for at least a while despite big name riders or Group 1 gallopers, this was it. Turnover was around HK$1.3 billion- an increase of of over one percent. Not too shabby. It’s better than seeing these numbers going south. Despite his double on Wednesday and to show just how tough it is to keep any momentum going in Hong Kong racing, Ruan Muia, who also happens to have the third best winning strike rate behind the duopoly of Purton and Moreira, has not been booked for even one ride today. Remember the four timer from Blake Shinn a few weeks ago? There isn’t exactly a conga line banging on the Australian jockey’s door offering him rides either. Week after week, Shinn is lucky to have five rides in a ten race card though today he has a “bumper” seven rides. Soon, Lyle Hewitson will return to Hong Kong as the latest addition to the riding ranks. That news has raised quite a few eyebrows.

Then again, with so many travel restrictions, no exemptions from 21-day quarantine laws unless one is Nicole Kidman, and a very different vibe in Hong Kong, the city is no longer the magnet it was for many, especially the big name riders in Europe. As for Lyle Hewitson, having gone through a baptism of fire a couple of years ago when he rode just three winners here, before making a name for himself very quickly in Japan and then having had a record breaking year riding in South Africa, he’d know that riding winners in his home country and breaking through in Hong Kong are two very different things. It’s always been about getting on the right horses at the right time- and hitting the ground running. Success overseas means precious little in Hong Kong where jockeys have to not only win over trainers, but also owners- and maybe even their wives, mistresses, friends and even their fung shui masters. It wasn’t really that long ago when one leading trainer was reluctant to put The Influencer on his horses as some owners considered his face to be “unlucky”.

Hong Kong has been very very good to very many foreign jockeys and trainers, especially those who stuck it out, didn’t get involved in booby traps and used their time here to put down roots and grow those money plants into trees. With its low taxes compared to those in Australia, the UK, and Europe, racing twice a week at two tracks that are a twenty minute car ride away from each other, the UK plus the prize money, the five star lifestyle given on a silver platter by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, they are set for life. If played well, there’s also the opportunity to receive Thank You presents and move in the upper echelon of society rubbing shoulders with those who can steer one towards the best ways to invest money and offer their own insider tips on shares, different currencies and properties. It’s not unlike having one’s own team of fund managers. It’s no secret that Hong Kong and Hong Kong racing have made very rich people of racing personalities like Douglas Whyte, Joao Moreira, Zac Purton, Karis Teetan, John Size, David Hall, John Moore and David Hayes.


There are then those, especially from Australia and back in the day who made plenty of hay while the sun shone before having to quickly make that midnight run. Of course, Hong Kong born racing talent like champion jockey and trainer Tony Cruz, Vincent CY Ho and a number of trainers have also become rich off the fat of the land. After all, this is home turf. For instance, Jerry Chau, who only recently graduated from being an apprentice to a senior jockey, and apprentice Alfred Chan have, apparently, already bought their own property that cost each rider over HK$10 million. There are even those local riders who were hardly at the top of the tree plucking mangoes now driving around town in the latest model Ferrari and Mercedes Benz and the occasional Lamborghini. Guess those crypto currency and property investments have paid big dividends.

Looking at, let’s say, a three year plan, what lies ahead for Hong Kong- maybe even the world- and Hong Kong racing? To use my new mantra, there will be a continuation and far more pronounced changing of the guard in what already is a new Hong Kong- and a new global abnormal. Certain jockeys, trainers and key racing executives would have retired or be on the verge of retirement. As for Gen Z or Gen Why, there’s no telling what might attract them three years from now and the new leisure choices that will be made available to them. They might all be in some metaverse using crypto currency, trading in NFTs and caught up in a real life version of “Inception”.


Horse racing? It might be taking place under a consumer generated interactive game in a virtual world and through different online entertainment driven clubs. Who knows? Everything and anything is possible. Either that or some of us might decide to Rewind and return to much simpler times and old fashioned priorities. As Dylan sang, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. You should know it in your heart.


It’s an interesting “Whether Forecast”, but for right now, it’s about being in the here and now, making the most of what’s available to bring you all the happiness you need. The rest is work. Too often these days, it’s too much hard work and with no Return On Bothering (ROB).


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