FAST FWD TO WHERE WE NEED TO BE HEADING…

When with Universal Music, and then EMI Music, certain artists were given to us from head office as Global Priorities, we had our Regional Priorities those whose music and tours we promoted.

There were then those international and local artists who we believed in and made the time to support. 

I was reminded of this over the weekend when in between everything else that are priorities in life, I was following the horse racing in Australia and in places like Randwick, Moonee Valley, Morphetville and Ascot in Western Australia. 

The racing in WA- Perth, Pinjarra, Broome, Kalgoorlie etc- is somewhere I am very familiar as I have been following racing there for decades- and jockeys with nicknames like “The Wizard”, “The Pontiff”, “The Boy Hill” etc. 

I also remember the times meeting up with friends in Melbourne who had “mail” for races at Flemington, Caulfield etc and how they could not understand why I would “go rogue” and bet on races in places like Doomben, the Sunshine Coast, and especially those in WA. 

Why? Simple.

I found it easier to find winners at these racetracks plus I had friends in Perth in the racing game and have always enjoyed visiting the city ever since being there for the OneMovement music festival. 

I also happen to believe that money speaks the same language wherever and however one decides to invest it. 

It’s a personal decision.

There is then always the emotional attachment one has with a particular city and its people and, if so inclined, its horse racing. 

Being a Hong Kong Belonger, of course, I follow the horse racing in the city, and have done so since the days when Hong Kong was a British colony and held once a week on a Saturday afternoon at the one racetrack at Happy Valley. 

Riding here at the time were largely Australian jockeys like Glynn Pretty, Peter Miers, Geoff Lane, Leon Fox, Ray Setches and a very talented Macanese apprentice rider named Tony Cruz. 

My biggest win in those Wild East days- a wager of around twenty bucks- was backing The Swinger, the last race ride by Eddie Cracknell, below, before his retirement and which led all the way in the nine horse field at odds of over thirty to one. 

Of course, like the city itself, Hong Kong racing has grown to be the Big Daddy of the pastime whereas every marquee value international rider who has plied their trade here has been extremely handsomely rewarded. 

On the Saturday of this past weekend, my friends and I won on horses ridden in Australia by Mark Zahra, Jye McNeil, and my old friend Nash Rawiller with the highlight for me being jockey Patrick Carberry and trainer Bernie Miller taking out the $5 million Quokka slot race at Ascot in Perth with Jokers Grin at odds of around 23-1. 

On Sunday was FWD Champions Day in Hong Kong at Shatin which had attracted a number of visitors, mainly from Australia and quite a large contingent of one-time Hong Kong residents. 

Sometimes, we in Hong Kong perhaps don’t realise how good this city still is until we are told how there’s no place like it anywhere else in the world.

From them you hear about the city’s speed of life, lunching at one of the outlying islands, visiting the Tai Kwun heritage building and everything to discover there, dinner at a side stall or a Michelin star restaurant like One Harbour Road, the art, the internationalism, and just taking in the overall vibe without having to be one of the “beautiful people”.

All this everything especially rings true when once again by those you see as real friends- people like Brent Thomson aka The Babe who rode here for the legendary trainer Brian Kan Ping-chee- and mentions how much he misses Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong is good for the ego”, he says. “The city somehow makes you feel like a star”.

Maybe- and also, sure, Hong Kong might not be what it was, but what is? 

We often forget that the year 2000 was twenty five years ago, and we’re now twenty five years older, and how there are new twenty five year olds with very different life experiences and ways of looking at the world today and their tomorrow.

They will never know what some of us enjoyed during those halcyon Hong Kong years comprising JJ’s, Canton disco, the original Jimmy’s Kitchen, Club BBoss, Planet Hollywood, the Tonnochy Ballroom, Shanghai Tang chic...

Perhaps, it’s time to somehow remind everyone of everything that made Hong Kong “Asia’s World City” and how all that will lead to everything that’s all this- but new…

Over the past couple of years, meanwhile, horse racing in Hong Kong has been attracting more and more visitors from China. This is a major tourism market and something not lost on the Hong Kong government and the Hong Kong Jockey Club. 

In fact, a few weeks ago, the Chief Executive of the city announced that horse racing would be promoted with greater emphasis as a new experience for tourists, especially from China. 

For which demographic- and how is it going to reach those around thirty something years old and with an international outlook on life?

Time will tell though new venues have been opened in Shatin for “VIP tourists” whereas Happy Valley has outlets with names like The Beat.

As we should know by now, Time is constantly ticking ticking ticking into the future, and trying to win customers-with attracting those “younger people” with completely different mindsets not going to be easy.

Every industry is grappling with the same challenges, especially the retail sector that’s facing a down economy in a geopolitical world led by some nearing eighty years old and perhaps even slightly unhinged.

Maybe, just maybe, all this will lead to something completely new and exciting and real. 

As for the horse racing on Sunday at Shatin, much of the conversation for days was about the world’s champion sprinter Ka Ying Rising trained by David Hayes with his regular rider Zac Purton. 

In Hong Kong for the FWD race meeting were the Hayes siblings and their galloper Mr Brightside plus world class riders like James McDonald, Christophe Soumillon, Craig Williams, Damien Lane, Yuga Kawada and the popular Magic Man that is Joao Moreira. 

We missed the turf “floor show” by two singers before the racing started, but we didn’t miss watching Kai Ying Rising take out the Group 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize with what was a combination of arrogant brilliance mixed with elegant confidence. 

Take a bow, David Hayes, Zac Purton, the owners in the Kai Ying Syndicate and the rest of the winning team for a performance on turf never ever seen in Hong Kong racing before- and this includes the wins of the great Silent Witness.

As for the FWD Champion’s Mile, well, what can one say except, “Red Lion won? At 90 to 1?” 

Yes the John Size trained Red Lion ridden by Hugh Bowman first past the post with James McDonald on $1.5 favourite Voyage Bubble second- and then the Enquiry sign went up followed by a protest- second versus first. 

After a lengthy enquiry, the protest was overruled and Red Lion roared for owner Ronald Arculli.

Perfectly ridden by Damian Lane, the Noriyuki Hori trained Tastiera won The QE 11 Cup for Japan and Carrot Farms though, unfortunately, this was a bittersweet victory. 

The thoughts of many will be with the popular Liberty Island who went amiss and had to be pulled out of the race.

After two more races, the race meeting was over with most of us going off in different directions with our own thoughts and plans for the night. 

Horse racing is a nice place to visit and a pleasant enough break.

It can also be much more than what it is, which one is sure is on the cards and will be needed to create the inspiration and a new sense of energy needed in Hong Kong.

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