Fitting into the new Hong Kong: It’s being able to read the tea leaves.
- 17 hours ago
- 4 min read
There’s much perception versus reality involved, and speaking recently to a young overseas jockey who was considering applying for a license to ride in Hong Kong, I advised her that being part and parcel of Hong Kong racing first requires doing serious due diligence about how the city works and sees itself today and what the government is thinking about based on the financial and business objectives of China.
It’s also about knowing exactly where a gambling driven pastime like horse racing fits in the totem pole of priorities for the Hong Kong government.
Let’s not get this mixed up with the business model of the Hong Kong Jockey Club including its Charities Trust and that the betting on football plus the very popular Mark Six lottery twice a week.
According to Mr Google, in the 2024/25 financial year, the Hong Kong SAR government received HK$30.1 billion in taxes and duties from the Hong Kong Jockey Club with HK$28.5 billion coming from direct betting and lottery taxes.
Being no expert on financial matters to do with governments and racing clubs, what I do know is that the HKJC is the largest taxpayer in Hong Kong and which also donates billions to various local charities.
Having said this, not many know where this money goes due to some rather rickety communications and clunky advertising and marketing, something I have spoken openly to the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club about and how this needs to be improved.
As for the Charities Trust, though I live here and created the Happy Wednesday brand for the Club to attract a younger audience and managed this brand for twelve years, there’s still so much I don’t know about the goings on at 1 Sports Roadwith its hires and misfires and various games of smoke and mirrors and the fear, trepidation and politics of some.
I learned about the horse racing aspects of the HKJC as I went along for the ride and from everything that came my way plus the advice received from my late barrister friend Kevin Egan. Big Kev knew much about horse racing in the city and a Hong Kong that has changed forever since he checked out.
Right here and now, the flagship products of Hong Kong racing appear to be the champion gallopers Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising. Looking ahead, I see relative newcomer Hot Delight adding to the brand along with Hong Kong born rider Jerry Chau.
Meanwhile, if listening to the bit players, the nickel and dime online punters and supposed “KOLs” of horse racing, what you might get is a rather bloated of Hong Kong racing and how much big money there is for the picking. Hmmmmm.
Those who have been in the one-time British colony, where almost all of the greats in horse racing have ridden, pine for the “good old days” when this was probably the most exciting city in the world.
Hong Kong was also where a nine year old from Ceylon found himself with his penniless parents and learned about the lay of the land when In Secondary school, and then by walking through the mean streets of, especially Kowloon, and seeing how the other half lived.
This was a world very different from the taipans and the noble houses that author James Clavell wrote about and was romanticised in at least two television miniseries.
As for horse racing, despite writing a song for champion sprinter Silent Witness and knowing some in horse racing better than others, where I enjoyed inhaling the smell of napalm in the morning or whenever were during my twelve years working with and never for the HKJC, especially with its CEO in Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges.
We made a very good team inside and outside the racing bubble. Where things went somewhat pear shaped was when the supposed partnership that I helped setup with longtime friend Simon Fuller and the HKJC was pretty much derailed through gremlins at work and, seemingly, no one in charge.
This was when I saw red flags and decided to bail with quite a few bridges being detonated in the process and words said in anger and frustration.
Personally, it’s better this way because walking on eggshells makes my knees buckle and I have an aversion to those who are as faux as many in the Trumpian administration.
As for being part of Hong Kong racing in the new era, well, look at how incredibly successful Mark Newnham has been in a very short time, and just how well Andrea Atzeni has fit in along with fellow jockeys Jimmy Orman, Richard Kingscote and Alexis Badel.
The question now is, What’s next for Hong Kong and does it have the right people in place to create one effective and holistic team who really can reinvent the wheel?
This is a question that I have been mulling over for the past few years.
Hong Kong is almost impossible to leave, especially if you have enjoyed it enormously when it was at its best and met and worked with game changers in different industries and created hits with them and which I wish to keep doing.
Look, I know what will make Hong Kong run, but for this to happen, and to attract high-end tourists in the latest change in strategy by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the city is in dire need of the best and most effective wontons that come with tasty and juicy deliverables and can be served tomorrow by those who know what the hell they’re doing.
Guess the same can be said about the horse racing in the city and showing, especially members and their friends what they receive as a return on their investment in time.
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