Having stepped into September, quite suddenly, it seems, the new racing season will soon get under way; we are now less than 10 days from our opening day on the 14th. Before things really hit top gear in the coming days, I took some time earlier this week to join Club Chairman Brian Stevenson for a trip to Sichuan to attend the plaque unveiling ceremony at the Ya’an HKJC Vocational College.
After the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 the Club pledged HK$1 billion to support various reconstruction and redevelopment projects there, and this college in Ya’an is one of the seven we supported. We are pleased to see its completion as, apart from providing a brand new campus for students, we also introduced the Club’s sustainability concept to the college, with a view to educating more young people with knowledge in that area. Some of the outstanding students will get the chance to go to Beijing to take up an internship programme or even employment in our Beijing HKJC Clubhouse. With their vocational skills and knowledge, we hope all graduates will utilize what they learn in the college to contribute to the reconstruction and development of their city and province in the future.
Apart from the college in Ya’an, the Chairman and I also paid visits to two other Club-supported projects in the province for the very first time - the Deyang HKJC No. 5 Middle School and the Sichuan University-Hong Kong Polytechnic University Institute for Disaster Management and Reconstruction HKJC Building. During the visit to the institute my interest was sparked by the medical and nursing care element. Professional medical workers are always very important during natural disasters, as they can save people’s lives and offer immediate treatment and psychological support to stricken victims and survivors. It was good to learn that some of the institute’s professors and personnel played exactly such a role last month when they proceeded to the neighbouring province of Yunnan to offer professional support and assistance after a strong earthquake hit there. I’m confident this institute can continue contributing to national disaster prevention through its development of expertise, medical and relief support work in the future. We are delighted to see that these visionary and sustainable projects in Sichuan augur well so far.
Back to local racing, with the aim of maintaining the world class status of our horse racing sport and providing exquisite racecourse experiences to our patrons and customers, we have implemented various facilities redevelopments and upgrade projects under our Racecourse Master Plan in recent years. The increase in racing turnover and the revival of racecourse attendances in the past few seasons reflect how much we have achieved. And actually, I’m happy to tell you that the overall performance and utilitisation rate of these new racecourse venues in the past year or two has exceeded our expected targets.
As our Racecourse Master Plan enters a new phase, in a press conference held earlier today I introduced to attending media some related new programmes and projects we will implement in the new season. In general we will continue to carry out various racecourse facility enhancement projects, and our main targets are to cater to the as yet unmet demand, and to create new venues and experiences for those younger Club Members. We will not solely put our focus on the Members’ segment though. We are just as excited about our plans for the public areas where we will also introduce more venues, creating choices for our patrons, especially for high value customers and those seeking casual entertainment in the racecourses.
With digital and mobile technology products now being part of our everyday life, we will further enhance our digital connectivity with our customers, and develop a new generation customer information and wagering experience system in the future. Hopefully, by doing so, we can build on our record results last season, maintain our good momentum and better prepare for any future challenges.
In the meantime, we also hosted the Pre-season Carnival at Sha Tin racecourse today. With the courtesy of your support, I was delighted to meet many smiling faces at the racecourse and I know many of them really enjoyed much the various attractions and fun activities we arranged today. Many of those who attended experienced the excitement of watching our horses in turf trials, also the exciting Jockeys’ Sprint which saw Karis Teetan and Vincent Ho win our very first “race” of the season. I can recall from an earlier media report that the winning jockeys in the Sprint usually have a good record of opening their real win account during the month of September, so it seems that today’s foot race result is a good omen for Karis and Vincent. I wish them, as I do you all, the best of luck in the new season.
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