WHEN TOURISM SUDDENLY DISCOVERS THE NEW WORLD OF HORSE RACING…

The horse racing industry is a strange one to describe, because, well, it means different things to different people- a gambling driven industry to most where winning is everything, a “sunset industry” to others, and, these days, an extremely important way to attract tourism from China to Hong Kong.

Horse racing desperately needs to “do a Sally Field” and, first of all, be liked. Really really liked, especially by those who might be new to the pastime.

From those days when writing about horse racing as the Racingbitch, and then creating the Happy Wednesday brand for night racing at Happy Valley Racecourse- repeat, NIGHT racing- what’s known as horse racing appears to have become one big slot machine comprising the same old players- players who are now almost twenty years older and very possibly thinking of retirement plans.

Are they able to see what lies ahead and understand a generation who is creating and looking at investing in its own future - and on its own terms?

Horse racing is in the same holding pattern as the music industry, the fashion industry, the movie industry, the hotel industry etc etc.

Though sports like Formula One, golf, tennis, and even cricket have reinvented themselves to attract new fans, brought in big spending sponsors, and have very quickly created interest with the women’s version of these sports, plus showing everything it does for various charities in meaningful ways, horse racing often remains in its own immovable macho man mode. 

Where’s horse racing heading, who’s driving it and does it even know Miss Daisy?

What continues to surprise me-someone who has been, and is still very much in music marketing and has run the Regional offices of Universal and EMI Music- is just how little those who should know, remain clueless as to how music is consumed and where.

‘Live’ entertainment led by music rarely works in the late mornings and early afternoons on a Sunday in some place like the paddock area of a racing club.

The vibe and mix of audience are wrong and it’s kinda like wearing clothes in a nudist colony.

Will the entertainment fare work better in a special venue located at the racetrack? 

In a small way, perhaps…But…

The stumbling block is the time that a consumer- and again, if the focus is in attracting tourists- is going to bother spending at a racetrack.

Forgetting all the travel time, it’s tough to watch around ten races plus all that filler time in between the races and then heading back home to change and get ready for the night ahead. All that adds up to many becoming drop dead too tired to do anything.

Is there a solution?

Perhaps PART of the vibe FROM a day of horse racing must continue to work after the last race has been run, and be made available anywhere and wherever the consumer wants what the pastime- and everything around it- can offer- fashion, clubbing, new eateries, new travel destinations, new music, meeting like- minded people…

This can very probably work best through an exclusive subscription based bilingual Members Only app that’s positioned as an online club.

This app can inform and entertain members about a number of places and things happening around the world other than horse racing through 24/7 mobility- and which is interactive and incentive driven.

Plus, and this is becoming more and more important in Hong Kong and to the HKJC and the government, show ways how horse racing can attract more and more tourism from China by placing greater emphasis on understanding more about the product and presenting this using exciting new technology and equally exciting and compelling messaging.

At Shatin racecourse, the HKJC has already introduced two new floors catering to VIP tourists.

The question racing clubs must ask themselves is where are its next leaders going to come from if “younger people” today might have only a passing interest in something like horse racing that they don’t find particularly attractive?

Hopefully, there are positive changes afoot and more entrepreneurial thinking and DOING.

This might have started when introducing Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club to my longtime friend Simon Fuller about two months ago. 

Simon is the head of X1X Entertainment and one of the smartest and most successful people in the world of entertainment. 

He owns the Idol franchise, and has, at one time or another, managed the careers of the Beckhams, Lewis Hamilton, the Spice Girls, Andy Murray and others including the new and young multi cultural pop group Now United. 

Simon Fuller and his CEO Christine have visited Hong Kong a couple of times recently and got to know how the HKJC works and what X1X can bring to the table- for horse racing, for Hong Kong and China, for tourism- and beyond. 

Exactly how this partnership might work is being massaged, and if everything goes according to plan, especially with the next Lunar New Year being the Year of the Horse, the stage might be set for things very different and relevant for these new times.

The Year of the Horse could be the single most important step taken by horse racing to move forward and burst out of its almost self imposed shell and bubble and embrace change through strategic infotainment and entertainment packaged in new technology. 

Let’s leave it at that for the time being.

Action and traction and new thinking always speak louder than words.

Hans Ebert

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