Besides following horse racing news from around the world, I always keep a close eye on media reports about the global gaming business, as it's important to understand the latest trends and developments in this rapidly growing industry. In many respects, gaming operators are direct competitors to horse racing, especially in this region where the huge growth of new gaming opportunities around the region poses considerable challenges to the Club's future sustainability.
Earlier this week, the Macau Government released the year-end figures for their local gaming industry – and I must say, they are quite staggering. Macau’s total gaming revenue in 2010 reached an incredible 183.3 billion patacas, which is a 58 per cent increase on the 119 billion patacas recorded in 2009, and four times higher than all the Las Vegas casinos combined.
Significantly, Macau's gaming turnover is far higher than the HK$12.4 billion gross margin from our racing operations in Hong Kong last season, and most analysts expect it to continue showing robust growth in the coming year, some putting the rise as high as 20 per cent. Coupled with similarly positive figures from the new casino operations in Singapore, this illustrates the huge competitive challenges our racing business in Hong Kong is facing, along with our racing counterparts in the Asia-Pacific region.
This is why a number of our regional counterparts are already taking action by launching new measures to strengthen their services and enhance their competitiveness. One is the Singapore Turf Club, who unveiled a new brand logo last week and also announced they would be launching "Tricast" services, which will let their racing fans watch races from three different meetings simultaneously on some racedays, for instance Sunday afternoon programmes from Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
In Japan, racing turnover has slipped considerably in recent years. To help curb this downward trend, the Japan Racing Association has decided to launch a new pool type called "Win5" on late April this year, similar to our Six-Up pool in Hong Kong.
Beyond this region in Europe, France Galop will increase the prize money for their races by about three per cent this year to about 175 million euros, following the liberalisation of France's online betting market last year. The prize money for top races like the Prix de la Foret, Prix de l’Opera and Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp will each increase by 50,000 euros. This will certainly boost the momentum of the French racing and thoroughbred industry, by providing other European and overseas connections with further incentives to send their top horses to compete in France.
It's becoming clearer than ever that we in Hong Kong have to do likewise by taking new measures to increase the attractiveness of our races, betting products and services, so as to maintain our competitiveness against other gaming operators in the region. We simply can't afford to get left behind if Hong Kong is to maintain its leading status in global racing. But due to tax and regulatory constraints, we cannot take such measures on our own, and we must rely on the Government's understanding and support. If Hong Kong racing were to become unsustainable in the long term, the consequences for the wider community could be unimaginable.
I see racing fans’ support to Hong Kong racing an important driving force, too. Tomorrow at Sha Tin we will host a sponsor’s day – the GOME Cup Raceday. There will be 10 races on the card, four of them on the all-weather track including the days’ trophy event, the GOME Cup, which will see a number of our top dirt performers in action. For this six-furlong race, I think it’s very competitive and it would be even better if Dynamic Blitz would have been in the field but the horse was not trumped by the trainer and missed out to get in the field.
The expected fast pace should help horses coming from the back of the field, but I still think that the ultra-consistent True Intelligence coming out of Gate 1, ridden by Maxime Guyon and being on the pace, has a good chance to win the Cup. I will also pay attention to other horses such as London China Town and Final Answer, who are both working well. It will be interesting to see if Amigo can translate his good all-weather barrier trial form into a race, as with his sire being Giant's Causeway he should have no problem to be a competitive force in this race.
The Haier Handicap has some interesting Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Classic Mile and Derby prospects in the race. The expected good to fast pace should help closers like Derby prospect Military Move. He had a good debut three weeks ago and is working well. I should see him having a good chance to at least being placed again. Paganini's Soul is working well too and is my other favourite. Another nice young runner Triumphant Colours, and the always underestimated Express Win, can also finish close in this event. Business As Usual will be an interesting newcomer and I would recommend you to watch how he shapes up in the paddock.
After the racing tomorrow, I shall be watching the standout tie of the FA Cup Third Round tie between Manchester United and Liverpool. The Red Devils have been in good form recently, winning three and drawing one of their four Premiership matches over Christmas and New Year, while most of their close contenders have been dropping vital points. In contrast, things have not gone at all smoothly for Liverpool, who reached another low by losing 3-1 to Blackburn in midweek.
But you can never write Liverpool off, as they still have some world-class players and there is always an extra competitive edge to their games against Manchester United, their fiercest rivals. In addition, the FA Cup has a tradition of producing shock results!
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