Four and a half months have passed since the Club first imposed attendance restrictions to combat the threat of coronavirus. Our city and sport have faced many challenges since but, as Government prepares to announce the next wave of relaxation measures, it is appropriate to set out a plan that aligns with official policy and provides a clear idea of what the coming weeks hold in store.
We have guiding principles which determine the activities we as an organisation can undertake. The first is that none of our activities should have a negative impact on public health and the second is that health and safety of our employees has to come first. These principles – applied daily with vigorous risk assessment and intense communication with employees – have helped us steer through these challenging times. Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to all our employees who have kept our organisation and the sport of horse racing going.
Experience has shown that we need agility to react quickly to events but the COVID situation is improving and social distancing requirements have lessened. Schools are re-opening, along with major leisure facilities such as Ocean Park, so the time is right for us to gradually proceed to the next phase in connecting with all our customers.
We have taken note of recent improvements in the COVID-19 situation and the Government’s plans for imminent further relaxation of public health measures. As such, and subject to Government endorsement and new developments, the Club’s carefully phased road map for the next few weeks will centre around several key areas.
Phased opening of Off Course Betting Branches and racecourses
Turnover has held up remarkably well given that most of our Off-Course Betting Branches have been closed for over a third of the season but we want to provide increased access to betting and therefore we are aiming for a phased reopening to give customers as much flexibility as possible within safe limits.
Next week’s Royal Ascot meeting provides a suitable starting point. Simulcast events tend to attract only around 25 per cent of normal local betting and we plan to open Sha Tin and Happy Valley racecourses from Monday until Friday between 10am and 6.30pm to enable people to access limited customer services and bet into the World Pool for the first four days of the meeting starting on Tuesday.
In addition, from 22 June we hope to re-open almost all of our OCBB’s on non-race days for customers to access account services and pre-race day betting. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 customers will visit OCBB’s on each day without Mark Six being offered. As with all phases of our plan, this will be subject to official endorsement with all appropriate precautionary public health measures in place.
Further progress on race day attendance
Stringent health and social distancing measures have been in place while racing behind closed doors at both our racecourses since January. However, it has been good to welcome various members and guests with advance table bookings back to the races of late and we plan to introduce further relaxations shortly.
Average racecourse attendance in recent weeks has been around 2,000 at Sha Tin and a little over 1,000 at Happy Valley. Considering the importance of traceability, we plan to allow a few hundred public members with advance bookings into the racecourses starting from the race meeting on 5 July.
Return of Marx Six in summer
I understand many of our customers are eager to see the return of the Mark Six. Indeed, I have received many messages to my Blog asking when the Mark Six will return and why we have horse racing available as betting service online but not Mark Six.
A normal Mark Six draw brings around 500,000 customers into our OCBB’s and if we have a jackpot it can almost attract double the numbers. With that in mind, it would be against our guiding principles to resume Mark Six Sales. As long as we have social distancing measures and public health restrictions in place, it would be impossible to handle such a number of customers without creating significant issues, including queues of 100m or more outside of our OCBB’s.
The reason why we do not offer Mark Six online is that around 70 per cent of our customers rely on OCBB’s to place a Mark Six. This is very different to horse racing and football, where less than 15 per cent of customers use OCBB’s to access our services. With this in mind, we don’t want to exclude a betting service like Mark Six to the vast majority of customers, especially when we have a potentially life-changing jackpot in play for a lot of people. Having said that, I do see a realistic chance to resume Mark Six draws after the racing season ends on 15 July. This would help create employment opportunities for our part time staff and at this stage our plan would be to hold one draw per week to spread out the number of customers visiting OCBB’s.
All Weather sprinters on Sha Tin Bonus trail
Sunday’s Arculli Trophy (R8) is a Class 2 sprint handicap on the all-weather track with four of the nine runners trying to cash in on the Club’s $1 million High Achievement Bonus before the end of their four-year-old season. Will Power, Fantasy and Highly Proactive are running out of chances whilst Red Desert has until the end of the calendar year before his clock strikes midnight.
Ugly Warrior was sent to Conghua after his last start in February and returned to Sha Tin in better form, showing some of his former speed in his trials. He won first up in 2017 and 2018 and should benefit from the lack of pace in this race. He will go forward to help set a modest tempo with Highly Proactive, Fantasy and Red Desert in close contention.
Gunnison has also benefitted from his time in Conghua and comes into the race off a sharp try in this same class, course and distance in his last start two months ago. He will get an ideal run from his good draw and figures to be right on the pace. His best races this season have come on the all-weather and he is a win and place chance here with Joao Moreira aboard.
Ugly Warrior is a six-time winner over the track and distance but has been very disappointing this season. He now looks ready to improve and is a place chance for Vincent Ho. Fantasy makes his first-ever start on the surface but has trialled well on it in the past. He is a place chance along with track specialist Will Power.
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