With Multivictory’s win for trainer Tony Cruz in the last race at Sha Tin on Sunday, our racing in 2014 came to an end. The new year will start in just a few hours’ time, so this seems like a good time to take the opportunity to sum up the past year. Whether viewed from the perspective of racing, business or our charity contributions, I think, all round, it has been a very memorable year for us all at the Club.
On the racing front our elite runners enjoyed an outstanding year as they notched a total of nine G1 wins in 2014. Five of those were achieved overseas, including two G1 doubles we had at the Dubai World Cup meeting in March and the SIA Cup meeting in Singapore in May. We also managed to get a landmark first G1 win in the US thanks to Rich Tapestry’s outstanding success in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship in October. These wins combined made 2014 the most successful year yet for our top horses. The exceptional performance of Able Friend in the LONGINES Hong Kong Mile earlier this month was another standout benchmark as he could very possibly become the Hong Kong horse with the highest ever international rating. We will know for sure when the year-end list of the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings is announced next month. I hope, after such a good year, there will be more Hong Kong horses featured in the world’s elite year-end rankings.
Looking back to May, you will recall that we staged the 35th Asian Racing Conference here in Hong Kong. That event was attended by more than 800 delegates from around the world and many leading international racing executives rated it as the best ever, saying that it had set a high benchmark for similar racing seminars and conferences globally. And just recently, we were also delighted to host the presentation ceremony of the inaugural World’s Best Jockey Award, the winner being the brilliant Ryan Moore. We believe that these occasions are a real testament to our high status in the international racing community.
Business-wise we registered our best racing season in 2013/2014 as the turnover hit the HK$100 billion mark for the first time. The re-launch of the Quartet pool in January was also very well-received among racing fans. We also maintained our roles as the largest single tax payer and as one of the major contributors to the local economy, as the HK$19.58 billion betting taxes we paid to the public coffer was a record and made up roughly 8 per cent of taxes as collected by the Government’s treasury last year. Our total economic contributions amounted to close to HK$32 billion last year, representing about 1.5 per cent of Hong Kong’s GDP in the corresponding period. As the employer of more than 25,000 full-time and part-time staff, we proudly showed our status as one of the city’s top enterprises, carrying the vision of corporate social responsibility in Hong Kong.
While we demonstrated our excellence in business performance, we also strengthened our commitments to the local community, and to helping build a better Hong Kong, as we made record charitable contributions of HK$3.61 billion in 2013/14. There were over 160 community and charity projects implemented throughout the year. Combined with other existing projects, these reached out to three-quarters of the local population.
Looking forward, there is much to give us optimism that we can do even better. We have a fine group of elite horses, led by the pick of last year’s Derby crop, Able Friend and Designs On Rome. I certainly hope they can continue to flourish both at home and abroad. There is talk of these horses going to Dubai in March and, as last year’s results there showed, seeing our best horses compete with the best overseas and run with distinction can only take our rising global status even higher in the new year.
With the Racecourse Master Plan entering its third phase this season, we will continue to conduct more racecourse development projects, launching more new initiatives to cater to and satisfy the unmet demands of different customer segments. Meanwhile, the Club will continue to upgrade our stable and training facilities which are essential to maintain Hong Kong’s leading position in global racing.
Commingling on Hong Kong races started last April and the results have been very encouraging. This serves as a channel for us to let millions of racing fans across the world engage with our world-class racing. With places like New South Wales set to join our commingling soon, I look forward to seeing racing fans from more countries and racing jurisdictions enjoying our racing products and directly betting into Hong Kong pools in 2015.
We are also celebrating the 130th anniversary of the Club with related celebration events to be commenced next month. The first occasion will be the 130th Anniversary Raceday which will be held on 10 January. We hope to share our success stories and development with the community, together with you all, and I would encourage you to join these celebratory programmes in the coming few months.
And what better way to commence a new year by participating in our “Lucky Start Jan 1” races on the first day of 2015? We’ve arranged 11 exciting races on the card tomorrow, with the first race starting at 12.30pm. As a compliment you can also receive a lucky key chain as a free door gift upon your admission to the racecourse. I’m looking forward to the atmosphere the race fans will generate so come along and soak it up for yourselves, and enjoy the various activities at Sha Tin tomorrow. I wish you all a very prosperous and lucky year in 2015. See you at the racecourse!
The Chinese Club Challenge Cup is the first Cup race of 2015 and is featured as the ninth race as a HK Group 3 event at 1400m. Secret Sham is a late withdrawal from the race, leaving a field of nine runners. Beauty Flame, Super Lifeline and Wonderful Moments will go forward to establish a realistic pace, and all three horses seem to perform at their best over this course and distance.
Wonderful Moments will benefit from his first-up run on HKIR day and improvement is expected with Matthew Chadwick taking the ride at 113 pounds as Joao Moreira is out with a suspension. He is a solid place chance.
Trainer John Moore saddles four of the nine runners in the race and Rewarding Hero is the one that gives me the most interest as he should benefit from the good tempo and will be running on over the concluding stages. He is a win and place chance for me, while All You Wish is another with a solid chance coming from the back. Flagship Shine was unlucky in the Group 1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint, but is yet another horse in this race competing over his preferred trip where he has won four of seven over the course and distance.
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