WHY HONG KONG CANNOT AFFORD TO KEEP BANKING ON A ONE TRICK PONY.
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
A former colleague in advertising revisiting Hong Kong after over twenty years was mentioning just how much the city- and everything in it- has changed, and not for the better either.
Having been invited to Riyadh for the running of the Saudi Cup and watching Japan’s Forever Young win and meeting the team behind this equine superstar, we talked about the horse racing in Hong Kong, which he had seen up close and personal last Thursday at the bang a gong Chinese New Year’s Day variety show at Shatin and felt it would have not been out of place in a David Lynch movie. “Eraserhead”?
In a city, where in 2026, Hong Kong is struggling to be noticed and with most things on hold before they hopefully hit their stride, horse racing is one of the city’s favourite- and only- pastimes for the loyal local diehards of the game, who are now probably in their seventies. Time stands still for no one no matter how high one pulls up their trousers.
The world has changed, we are all older, priorities have shifted, there’s a new generation waiting to create their own baton and not inherit anything from the village elders, and maybe it’s because of all these changes taking place that Japan’s latest champion galloper Forever Young has struck a chord with many who would normally not be looking at horse racing and are now because of this wonderful athlete.
Timing, it’s always about timing and Hong Kong in 2026 is certainly not what it was during those days of “immobility”, being “offline”and when we were happy to meet up with friends in person, date the person you just met and engage in meaningful conversation and have the rest of the day take us to our next destination and adventure.
As for Forever Young, perhaps much of this interest in the horse has to do with him and the team around him being from Japan, the country that is the epitome of resilience having rebuilt itself after World War Two and given the world the Sony Walkman, Shiseido, anime, J-Pop long before K-Pop, a brilliant filmmaker like Kurosawa, always trendy Japanese cuisine, designers like Kenzo, anime and inspiring game changers from the West like David Bowie.
Japan today, a country associated with almost everything that’s cool, creative, quirky and interesting, has now given the international racing world Forever Young along with its strong fandom.
How and why has everything reached this level of interest, especially for a gambling driven product that’s not exactly embraced by many?
Everything has evolved organically around a very unique equine talent in the globe trotting Forever Young.
Quietly, added to this equine athlete who has become a brand are invaluable opportunities to travel with him to places like the anime world which has its own fan base and community, gaming and whatever else might be coming up next and where this racehorse can live up to his name and be “forever young”.
Could this same level of commercial and mainstream success happen to Hong Kong’s champion galloper Ka Ying Rising?
Sorry, but no, because if it was going to happen, big things would have happened by now.
I really don’t think today’s Hong Kong has a culture that is international enough whereas one can’t help but wonder if the Hong Kong Jockey Club was looking in the right places when it mattered and when it came to marketing this Ka Ying success.
Breaking the record of Silent Witness of seventeen consecutive wins is hardly earth shattering news even to the most hardcore racegoer and some of the online comments show that the story has already passed its Use By date though, of course there might be a soupçon of sour grapes involved.
Where are those individuals in Hong Kong today with the creative fluidity that once existed here to offer and change formulaic old school marketing that’s showing its age in these constantly evolving times?
Of course, Hong Kong is not Japan and certainly does not have an open field of dreams and creativity to take much of anything through new doors of opportunity.
Unlike Japan having given the world so much, for some reason, creativity in Hong Kong stalled almost two decades ago and this one time home of mine is hardly “Asia’s world city”, anymore.
Once dismissed as “boring”, Singapore is showing up Hong Kong in all areas, and, more and more, Vietnam, is looking very attractive to tourists.
Hong Kong? It’s almost an echo in a giant wasteland with voices asking, “Is there anyone out there?”
As for horse racing in Hong Kong, more and more, there are those who see it perhaps succeeding if presented as being a “game in two parts” instead of trying to squeeze square pegs into a round hole and calling it “entertainment”.
Is this strategy being accepted or coming across as a mongrel with no brand recall and where one size being rinsed and repeated never satisfies all?
Having been in Hong Kong for almost six decades, created the Happy Wednesday brand for the HKJC and worked with the Club for over a decade, much was learned about the way it works- the hiring process, the hits and misses, the sometimes petulant behaviour of some of its executives, and where there exists a certain divide and conquer political corporate culture along with scattered and rather cheesy thinking.
It’s almost as if no one knows what to do next, so why not just throw everything against the wall and see what wontons stick?
What those running horse racing, like the biggest breeders in the world and those big spending horse owners dancing sheik to sheik, and others who have plenty of “skin” in the game need to understand is that this one time sport of kings is not taking place in some alternative reality.
Horse racing appears to be on borrowed time and is something that will never be accepted by a mainstream audience or sponsored by popular consumer brands.
It just plods along as if Trumpian politics, wars, depression, mental health issues, AI, corruption, lies, the Epstein files, trade tariffs, dictators, grifters,pedophiles, Andrew and a ravenous appetite for greed don’t exist. Only horse racing does and only horse racing matters. Wake up and read the tea leaves.
Do those in charge of horse racing even KNOW where their product might fit into this peculiar and splintered global environment and what exactly it even IS in 2026 and who its primary customer segment is?
It’s all kinda spooky and like watching a lost episode of “The X-Files”.
On perhaps a more serious note, apart from the betting taxes, is horse racing of any value to governments? If so, how so? It certainly wasn’t to the Singaporean government, and as a city, Singapore appears to be booming along very well without horse racing.
When John KS Lee, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, mentioned something or another last year about sports and entertainment and tourism, was this just some off the cuff thought bubble being floated and which didn’t include horse racing?
Is horse racing even a sport or a pastime for those only interested in the gambling aspect of the game? Is this the desired image?
As for the “surge” in tourists to the races in Hong Kong with their elderly tour guides, this is nice, but what’s the point if these are budget tour groups from Shenzhen with no idea of how horse racing works and with no money to spare and have even a teeny weeny bet?
Off the top of my head, and for what it’s worth, those wishing to gamble on which horses will win and enjoy doing this with likeminded people should carry on only if they can afford to take the financial risks. Dump the “entertainment”.
Perhaps ANOTHER non race day should be set aside for a very different market segment who might want to find out more about horse racing and decide for themselves whether the time spent is worth it and what THEY want out of it?
Yes, Virginia, a creative presentation in real time of horse racing without any ‘live’ horse racing but with all the bells and whistles by those who know how to produce effective and compelling presentations.
Invite, for example, the best horse racing photographers like Chase Liebenberg, Barbara Livingston, below, Alex Evers and others to exhibit their work, invite a new horse whisperer, invite someone from the brilliant Living Legends community etc and create something for the world outside that originated in Hong Kong.
A friend of mine in psychology would be happy to talk about how working on all those numbers in horse racing massages that important muscle called the brain and might help those dealing with Alzheimer’s.
Show that there’s an empathic side to horse racing and not something solely about gambling, which is something that many governments will distance themselves from because they would not want to be tarred by the same Basil Brush.
For the retail sector in Hong Kong, make the hotels and restaurants around the Happy Valley racecourse partners in the marketing and promotional plans and give Hong Kong something else than being the same old and tired one trick pony.
If there is to be a dose of nostalgia, let’s not wheel out the usual Canto Pop suspects.
Create TRIBUTE shows for them just as there are lookalike and sound alike acts of ABBA, the Beatles, the Bee Gees etc etc. Use those music marketing dollars wisely if revisiting Funky Town.
At the end of the day, it comes down to the customer and their money and the tail can’t be seen wagging the dog. Nor the horse, though Japan’s Forever Young has given racegoers and quite a large section of the mainstream audience something and someone new to cheer on.
It’s might not seem like much to those who have moved on, but it could be a new start and something that just might inspire a new era of creativity and independent thinking in Hong Kong.
PARTING SHOT
With the music track written by a team of over 23 crack international musicians, this rollicking music video to get temperatures rising and getting the fever high is a contagious and rather mysterious work of creativity with several subliminal messages.
For instance, there’s a quick cut of beer to get people thirsty for more. More what though? Exactement!
In the wide crowd shot, who is the woman asleep with her shades on? Or maybe she had fainted?
Who is the human inside the suit of the Ka Ying Rising mascot? Most say it’s The Lally Man. Aaron Kwok does NOT appear in this video, which is a rarity. The two boys waving flags like sissy boys? Probably sissies.
The empathy riddled CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club has apparently remarked that the video offers Hope to the Hopeless. And then he embraced and fist pumped himself.
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