It’s been a while now since I gave an update here in my blog, and I hope you have all been having a nice time over the past few weeks. The new season will begin in less than a week and as in past seasons, my colleagues and I are all now busy with preparations for the new season in general, and for the season’s opening meeting this Sunday in particular.
Last Saturday at Sha Tin Racecourse we hosted a pre-season carnival, with more than 8,700 people joining us there to enjoy an entertaining afternoon. Apart from various activities on course, they also witnessed Brett Prebble winning the Jockeys’ Sprint for the very first time, a result which augurs well for the rider before he partners Lucky Nine to race in the G2 Centaur Stakes in Japan this weekend. Carnival visitors also had the chance to feel and experience the speed of racehorses in the subsequent barrier trials held on the turf.
I noticed a couple of runners who performed well in the trials. They included two of the trial winners, Joy And Fun and California Choice, who showed by their decent performances that they have made significant improvement in their health condition. Another trial winner to catch my eye was New Greenfield, who was a Group 3 winner when he raced as a two-year-old in the UK, and who won his trial with an impressive late surge. So let’s see how these horses progress in future trackwork and I would certainly be keeping a close eye on them when they make their seasonal debuts later on.
Actually, I’ve only just returned from Singapore this morning as I was in Kranji yesterday to present the winners’ trophies after the Hong Kong Jockey Club Trophy race. In recent years, we have a very cordial and friendly relationship with the Singapore Turf Club, and this can be shown by the co-ordination in race scheduling between the two clubs last season. While the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup being held on 1 May, the Turf Club adjusted the date of the Singapore Airlines International Cup to 22 May. This arrangement has benefitted a few globetrotters such as Gitano Hernando and River Jetez as they were therefore able to race in both of these 2000m premier G1 events in Hong Kong and Singapore within a three-week period.
Singapore’s racing development has been very noticeable in recent years. The general quality of racehorses in Singapore, highlighted by the emergence of Rocket Man in the global sprint ranks, has risen significantly. The Turf Club’s co-operation with Tabcorp of Australia to set up commingled pools on Singapore races has also enjoyed emphatic success since it went into operation last summer. But all in all, I think these achievements would not have been possible if without the staunch support given by the Singaporean Government.
Similarly, in overseas racing jurisdictions such as Australia, France, South Africa and Singapore, they have formed certain commingling relationships in recent years. In Hong Kong, however, despite the fact that we were the first racing organisation to proposed the idea of commingling, the Club has still been unable to make any progress in this respect as our local double taxation problem remains unresolved, making commingling totally not viable in commercial terms.
With the Club not being in part of such commingling, I’m concerned about the danger that such overseas commingling hub will be big enough to start diverting the betting money and turnovers from our pools, by offering attractive betting packages to our customers from places where these operators can enjoy a much lower tax or even tax free.
If that’s the case, commingling will cease to be an offshore issue in Hong Kong, as such a trend would endanger our status as a world leader in the sport of racing, and could affect the substantial amount of tax contribution and charity donations the Club made in Hong Kong every year.
I truly hope the SAR Government and related authorities soon become aware of this problem, listen to our calls for a review of our current taxation regime, in order to address the issue. Only then we can make sure we don’t lag behind this major development trend in world racing, and the long term interests of our world-class sport not being seriously hampered in Hong Kong.
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