IN THE COURT OF THE CRACKED WORLD OF CONSTANT CHANGE

Though certainly remaining something of an enigma, horse racing and those who still sail in her always being interesting enough for me and who learned much about the pastime when writing as the Racingbitch.

Though running the regional offices of Universal Music and then EMI Music with my friend Norman Cheng, below, who was a horse owner and knew many of the players in Europe, being Racingbitch offered me an inside track into viewing this world of horse racing, which I certainly found intriguing and helped in ways few would understand how to deal with artist management in the much larger and more demanding entertainment industry.

It was about going through a steep and fascinating learning curve where, because of my great friendship with the late barrister Kevin Egan, I learned much about the legalese of horse racing, how to never bend and the different ways to navigate my way through the various stages of processes, especially when almost always incurring the wrath of the HKJC Stipendiary Steward I had dubbed “Elliot Ness”.

Thinking back to that time, and what I learned, it was very probably why creating the Happy Wednesday brand for the Hong Kong Jockey Club worked so easily for me, and also understanding how horse racing could tap into the psyche of those who didn’t mind going racing where they could meet like minded younger people, but protected themselves from the beast called The Punt by wearing garlic around their necks.

With Norman also owning some champion horses in Macau, seeing what was going on there and getting to know many of the players was not unlike being a character in the Joe Pytka directed movie called “Let It Ride”.

If David Lynch might have made a film on horse racing, it would have probably been playfully noire like a bleak version of “The Hangover”with midgets talking backwards, constantly changing tote boards while a race was in progress, Eastern European ladies of the night showing up to the races in the afternoon dressed in mini dresses and silver boots and the eyebrow raising sight of then-trainer Gary Moore dressed like the doorman from the Furama hotel- but minus the turban.

These days, and with me far more interested in Gorillaz than horses, it’s still interesting to see how the racing game is faring, and how the more things change, very little does.

Whereas my portfolio in today’s constantly changing world range from global politics and how much this involves insider trading and the vagaries of economics, horse racing appears happy being in its own little box and some odd species known as KOLs and “influencers”, especially in Hong Kong, believing that the entire world revolves around this game of chance where every race is rigged and that the house always wins.

Earlier this week, I happened to tune in to one of those online racing and sports radio channels in the land of Oz and listened to someone sounding dangerously breathless, and speaking fast and furiously about the twentieth win on Sunday in Hong Kong of the quite incredible Ka Ying Rising, visiting the pickup joint known as Joe Bananas, and mentioning something or another about Black Caviar until the weight of the gibbering information overload gave way and I returned to watching Gordon Ramsay have a little rant at those in charge of one of those Hell’s Kitchens.

Personally speaking, other than Hong Kong racing having to be rather wary about being seen as a two trick pony and with boredom setting in, horse racing needs communications professionals with strong roller decks to those OUTSIDE of horse racing and who know how the other half live.

These hires should also know how customer segments have become and are becoming more and more fragmented, which surely means looking at quietly- and quickly-catering to this audience with a very different business model, n’est pas?

It’s also about taking a leaf from The Art Of War and understanding the enemy and those private equity companies who are following a Small Is Beautiful business strategy built around a “boutique” image aimed at the Ibiza crowd, and a product that’s very much exotic destination driven.

From what was recently shown, a very much scaled down version of horse racing is pencilled in and time will tell if it might even be in the final plans.

Knowing something about these private equity companies from when EMI Music was surreptitiously sold to the Guy Hands owned Terra Firma and our then Chairman and Co-Chairman were locked out of their offices when they arrived for work on Monday morning, plus the very much protracted lawsuits that flew around, nothing and no one is ever who they appear to be, and being thrown under the bus has become a daily business occurrence, especially in these surreal Trumpty Dumpty times.

Racingbitch was a pussycat compared to the goings on today and only a dullard with extremely thick skin will think that they will be unaffected and that a couple of champion horses known only to the racing fraternity will save the pastime.

Time will tell, though apart from the above was receiving the rather telling outline of a film script based around two supposed friendly heads of racing clubs in Australasia, their respective diva wives, characters like gay riding boys, vets, vet blankets and grifters engaged in various dalliances with unscrupulous bagmen.

No, it’s not going to be directed by Mel Brooks though “Springtime For Hitler and Germany” and a plot based on tax losses did cross my mind.