3 minute read
The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) was pleased with the outcome of the major meeting at Sha Tin on Sunday as while the crowd was, as expected, down the meeting due to Hong Kong's current transport issues and street protests the racing was captivating and went off without a problem.
Last week the HKJC cancelled the Happy Valley meeting in Wednesday night due to staff and patron safety issues and before Sunday's meeting the HKJC had warned customers of the transport difficulties in reaching the racecourse. However a crowd of 11,065 still managed to attend. Last year 22,636 attended the meeting.
The result was heartening for HKJC officials as they plan for the major HKIR meeting at Sha Tin on December 8th. The Club received signifcant nominations for the four feature races of the LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (HK$28 million), LONGINES Hong Kong Mile (HK$25 million), LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (HK$20 million) and LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (HK$20 million).
There were 202 nominated horses, with 66 Group 1 winners from 12 countries/regions, 11 up on 2018 including Japan's champion mare Almond Eye (JPN). The supplementary entry stage for the 2019 LONGINES HKIR will close at 6pm (Hong Kong time) today, Monday November 18th, with acceptances to be released later in the week. Runners will be due to arrive at Sha Tin from late next week.
"The fact we were able to hold this meeting without any issues sends a very strong signal internationally that this is a very resilient place to have horse racing," said Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges reported scmp.com.
"Everything has gone as smoothly as possible. Despite the challenges, a lot of people still came."
Betting turnover was down HK$134 million to HK$1.417 billion.
"It was especially local turnover, which has practically dropped by HK$170 million. I think some people are probably not in the mood right now and if you look at how many off-course betting branches were closed, that has an impact," Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
"We have to concede certain losses in turnover, but that is nothing against what other [businesses in Hong Kong] have experienced.
"At this stage, turnover is not our prime consideration – it is safety. We want to keep the sport going. This meeting was key to the qualification and the fitness of the local horses heading to the Hong Kong International Races.
"We would love to have them (the public) here and to see what I think is a great day of racing. But we are not living in times when it is business as usual. We have to be extremely flexible when it comes to issues, and that is what we try to do.
"We're not looking at the commercial side of things. We want to continue racing, which I think is very important for Hong Kong. Therefore we had to make some decisions from a risk assessment point of view.
"We live in challenging times and in challenging times sometimes you have to make some tough decisions based on risk," he said.
Last year's HKIR meeting was attracted a crowd of 98,388 with turnover of HK$1605 million. Those figures cannot be expected to be reached with the current Hong Kong environment, but the main aspect will be for the racing to proceed. Sunday's meeting showed that Hong Kong's challengers for the international runners will be strong with the locals in fine form for the upcoming meeting in three weeks.