Hi, it's great to have spent the past few days in Tokyo at the 32nd Asian Racing Conference. It's been a very thought-provoking week for me and for the many other delegates from racing jurisdictions across Asia, as we were able to share views on the latest developments and future prospects of racing at a crucial time when the global financial turmoil will inevitably have an impact on everyone in the industry.
The Japan Racing Association organised this conference very well and I must say the past few days have been fruitful, giving us all many new insights, and our Club's delegation members have also made some very good presentations and contributions in the conference. Although it's impossible in such a short time to delineate any concrete measures and resolve the problems we are all facing, I feel confident that we achieved some real progress and consensus in the past few days.
Many of the delegates supported the view that in response to increasing competition from other entertainment businesses, aggravated by the swift deterioration of the global economy, it was essential for racing operators across the region to focus not only on servicing their existing fans, but also to look at ways of expanding their customer base and attracting more people to the sport.
On the wagering side, most conference participants were also supportive of expanding international commingling, as they believed this measure could help take racing to a new frontier and liquidate the global pool that eventually bring many benefits to the jurisdictions concerned. I was delighted to hear our Club Chairman John Chan advise fellow Asian Racing Federation members to approach their governments and seek more government support on constraints like double taxation, so as to foster the development of international commingling and put the racing industry on a more sustainable base for the future.
With racing operators in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa planning to co-operate on bet commingling, and Singapore also set to be joining them very soon, the Club will get left behind the pace if we cannot secure changes to our existing regulations in Hong Kong.
There is no doubt that intense competition and the worsening economic climate pose severe challenges to all racing operators worldwide. But at the same time, it provides an opportunity for the industry to explore fresh ideas and plan new ways forward. So I hope that our fellow jurisdictions in this region can safely negotiate the storm and will still be prospering when the next Asian Racing Conference is held in April 2010.
For now, our thoughts will be turning back to Asia's next big racing carnival, the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races which take place here on home turf just one month from now.
Our home team has enjoyed some excellent performances in this premier event over the years, especially in the past three seasons when local runners have each time won two of the four International Group One races, demonstrating that Hong Kong's racing standards are among the best in the world. Tomorrow's programme at Sha Tin Racecourse will feature one of the warm-up events, the Cathay Pacific International Cup Trial, which offers our trainers a timely chance to assess the progress of their top runners. So I hope you will give them your full support and perhaps spur our local heroes to achieve even better results this year.
Tomorrow, I will be looking forward to another great show of Viva Pataca. Although Viva Pataca was noted to have injured its right elbow, I still hope he will be fine and if he is confirmed to be fit to run in the Cathay Pacific International Cup Trial, he should still be hard to beat.
For the other races, I will be paying special attention to Longwah Rising and Majestic Heart. Longwah Rising is an improving type and ran second last time despite the outside draw. With a better draw of gate 5, he should deliver better performance. Majestic Heart was unlucky last time as he was held up and unable to improve in the final stage of the 1600m race. Let's see if he can win his first race in the season provided that there's no traffic problem.
Last but not least, let me remind you that from tomorrow's meeting onwards, the Club will introduce In Play betting services for the Jockey Challenge pool, and at the same time increase the number of jockey selections to 14. The Jockey Challenge pool has been very well-received since it was launched last season, and this interesting fixed-odds bet type has become another talking point among our racing fans.
Over its months of operation, many racing customers have left us with their feedback on the Jockey Challenge pool. The Club attaches great importance to the needs of its racing customers and that's why we have decided to introduce In Play betting services. We believe it will bring more flexibility to our racing fans and add some extra fun to the races.
By the way, we know that some racing fans have raised their views concerning the exotic pools for quite some time, hoping that they could place their wagers at relatively smaller unit rates. The Club hears their opinions and we are working on the details for the implementation of an extension of our Flexibet services to those exotic bet pools. I will keep you updated on any further progress on this issue.
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