I hope you all enjoyed our Chinese New Year raceday on Saturday, which attracted a total attendance of 96,000 – nearly 90,000 of them at Sha Tin. Our racing turnover also reached a season high of HK$1.26 billion, which is the highest CNY raceday figure since 2001. Taking together some thrilling races, great entertainment programmes, and cracking racecourse atmosphere, I would say this is the most exciting CNY race meeting I've experienced since I came to work in Hong Kong 13 years ago.
There were racegoers occupying almost every corner of Sha Tin Racecourse, with thousands packed into the grandstands. Actually, I can tell you that round about Race 4, we were very close to raising the red flag, as there was nearly a full house. I would like to thank you all for your great support.
The popularity of this event demonstrates once again that the CNY Raceday has become a "must do" activity for both local residents and visitors during Lunar New Year. At the same time, it reminds us that we have to keep making improvements to our racecourse facilities so as to keep pace with this rising demand and give our customers increased comfort and convenience.
We want to ensure that a day at the races in Hong Kong is a unique and memorable experience that will keep our customers coming back regularly, and encourage them to bring along their friends. Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could attract crowds of this size every week?
That’s why we've put in place a Racecourse Master Plan, paving the way for a programme of major enhancements to both racecourses over the next few years. However, it represents a very substantial investment, which means that we need to be sure of generating sufficient surpluses over the long term to fund it, without impacting on our charitable donations. And that's where the big challenge lies.
If you look at last Saturday's huge turnover, you might think that the Club was doing very well financially, but in fact these figures don't tell the full story. The Government was by far the biggest winner of Saturday's meeting, as it banked a whopping HK$153 million in betting duties.
Although our horse racing turnover has steadily increased since a package of betting duty reforms was introduced in 2006, the change in our gross margin – that is to say, what we have left after paying dividends to customers and betting duties to Government – has hardly grown at all, rising from HK$3.3 billion before the reforms to just HK$3.4 billion last season. Such increase in gross margin has been compensated by the increase of prize money as for running more races, but the Government’s share of horserace betting duty has been increased from HK$7.9 billion to HK$9 billion last season. So this is why we continue to urge the Government to look further at the tax structure.
It is in the Government's own interest to ensure that the Club is able to reinvest in the business and keep Hong Kong racing sustainable in the years to come, so that it can keep generating betting duties for the public purse and surpluses for charitable donations, as well as enhancing the city's international reputation and boosting tourism.
Anyway, getting back to the action on the track, we saw a fantastic battle for the Chairman’s Sprint Prize on Saturday between Dim Sum and Sacred Kingdom. Amazingly, it was the third success in five years for owner David Pong, as Dim Sum also won this Group 1 race in 2009, while his horse Billet Express was victorious in 2006. In the past few years, this race has not been scheduled for the CNY Raceday, but we decided to include it this time to add some further excitement to the occasion. It was clear that our racing fans were pleased with this arrangement.
Looking ahead to the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby, it was also good on Saturday to see some of our best young hopefuls in action. One that caught my attention was Free Judgement, who won the Class 2 event over a mile on just his second start in Hong Kong. This Irish import showed promising credentials when he was in Europe, including a runner-up finish to three-time Group One winner Canford Cliffs in the Irish 2000 Guineas at The Curragh last year. After an increase in his ratings, he now looks likely to secure a starting place in the Derby, and I shall very much look forward to seeing how he performs in this prestigious event next month.
First, though, it's back tonight to Happy Valley, where most racing fans' focus will inevitably be on the Wong Nai Chung Handicap, as two top 10 contenders in the 1O1O Million Challenge, Romantic City and Turbo King, will square off with each other in this six-furlong event. These two quality sprinters have already notched up five wins and two seconds between them this season at Happy Valley, so it is sure be an interesting battle to watch.
The expected fast pace will make this key clash for the 1O1O Million Challenge really interesting. Now with only 30 points, I think Romantic City has to win to give himself a chance for the challenge. His great gate speed will put him in a good spot in the lead and he has a good chance of winning the race. Chevalier King who comes out of Gate 10 will give some pressure to Romantic City early in the race, but I think Chevalier King has chance to snatch a place finish, too. I will be most interested to see how Turbo King, with Brett Prebble on board from Gate 3, to perform tonight. He should be in a good position in midfield before turning the turbo on in the straight. Let’s see if he can win this race. Chater Mikado is another key contender with Douglas Whyte on board from Gate 5.
In the Craigengower Cricket Club Challenge Cup, the expected pace should be good to fast, as five runners are expected to go forward. Over this trip, runners showed early pace won 63 per cent of the races. So the time for a good break will be the key of success. Charity Spirit from Gate 5 showed good gate speed in his first start over 1200m. With an expected improvement from his fourth place finish in that run, he is for me the horse to beat. Amadeo from Gate 8 is very speedy too. Although he has got nine pounds for his win last time, he is still in nice form and I think he will also finish very close in this race. Golden Bauhinia has claims from an ideal gate of 2 and shows improvement in his last run. He and another Happy Valley 1000m specialist Ever Beauty could give some threats to other top runners in this race.
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