Does thoroughbred horse racing have a long-term future in Hong Kong?
The mere question may seem outrageous to aficionados of the sport.
Isn’t the vibrancy of the sport in Hong Kong with its large crowds, high betting turnover, and international appeal, a guarantee of its continuing existence as one of the world’s premier racing locations?
But the question arises following the decision to close racing at Macau, another of China’s Special Administrative Regions.
The Macau Jockey Club’s apparent reasons were due to their operational difficulties and the inability of horse racing activities to meet the current development needs of society—whatever that means!
The former Portuguese colony, unlike Hong Kong, has tended to remain free from the headlines since it was handed back to the People’s Republic of China.
Macau is the home of numerous casinos, and is often referred to as the “Las Vegas of the East.” Millions of visitors flock to the city to gamble. One in five locals are employed in the industry.
While racing has been nowhere on the scale of Hong Kong, it has flourished over the decades with the thoroughbred population largely drawn from Australia.
During the past two decades, much effort was applied to modernising racing in Macau. New facilities, improvements in training, integrated betting and a modern outlook improved the sport greatly.
COVID-19 certainly interrupted the sport, but it didn’t kill racing.
World-Class Venue
Hong Kong became one of the great racing venues in the world, aided by the huge betting pool.For decades, punters crowded into the small, tight Happy Valley racecourse, a track now surrounded by dozens of high-rise apartment buildings. The racing was always exciting, the home turn being one of the tightest in the world.
In 1978, the Hong Kong Jockey Club opened the world-class Sha Tin racecourse in the New Territories, a purpose-built facility with both turf and dirt surfaces.
With tight restrictions, and a limited number of horses, trainers, and jockeys, the venue flourished. Significant prize money and world-class racing has been the result.
Hong Kong has also produced some champion horses, with the winner of the most recent WS Cox Plate, Romantic Warrior, being the latest example.
Australians have been intimately involved in the venue, a stream of trainers, such as Colin Hayes, and jockeys like Zac Purton, have become household names in Hong Kong.
Some of our best race callers have worked there, starting with Jim McGrath who went on to call in the UK for the BBC.
Sydney caller, Darren Flindell, and Adelaide caller, Bret Davis, also did stints as English-language broadcasters. Former New South Wales caller Mark McNamara is now at the microphone.
Along with the herbaceous border and the rule of law, the English—and Irish—gave thoroughbred horse racing to the world.
Consider where the sport flourishes: Australia and New Zealand, the United States and Canada, South Africa, and to a lesser extent, India, Malaysia, and even Malta.
Of course, racing thrives in France and Germany and other parts of Europe, elsewhere in Japan and the Middle East, and Mexico and parts of South America.
Empty Without Excitement
For years, there have been rumours of the expansion of racing in China, especially to the tourist island of Hainan, but nothing has eventuated.The island would be an ideal location for the sport, with millions of Chinese flocking there for annual holidays. There are race meetings in other parts of China, but without gambling (legally).
It is like watching one of those artificially generated horse races in betting shops: technically accurate, but lacking any emotion or excitement.
Imagine Flemington on Cup Day or Randwick for The Everest without having a flutter on your favoured horse. Attendances would plummet without the excitement of following your fancy and racing would quickly die.
Not that the Chinese are averse to gambling. Board and card games are ubiquitous throughout the country.
But CCP leader Xi Jinping, try as he might, cannot control billions of people playing games, even if wagers are involved.
The fear for racing enthusiasts is that the closure of the Macau course has not just been an economic decision, but ideological. Unlike the closure of Kranji racecourse in Singapore, essentially to provide more housing on the crowded island, there are not the same pressures in Macau.
When I was defence minister, I was flown around Singapore Island in a helicopter. The purpose was to impress upon me how crowded the island was, at a time when the Singaporeans were seeking additional training time for their defence forces in northern Australia.
There was no doubt that there was very little spare land on the maintained garden island. But Macau is different.
Gambling—and associated pursuits such as horse racing—do not fit Xi’s ideological bent. In his view, such activities are sins of the bourgeois, petty, and unworthy pastimes that corrupt the individual and benefit the capitalist class.
Perhaps Hong Kong’s world-class thoroughbred racing with its international participation and audience will protect the industry from Xi’s whims.
However, this has not been the case when the CCP leader has taken a dislike to other activities. Nor has it protected Hong Kong against changes that have been detrimental to the territory.
Many businesses and tens of thousands of people have fled Hong Kong since the United Kingdom handed it back to the Chinese. This exodus has increased in recent years as increasing restrictions on freedoms have been enforced.
