With the international race week just past, all of us at the Club are now focusing on our next major project, the Club’s 130th anniversary celebrations. On Thursday we hosted a press conference to kick off the celebration campaign, and during that we announced the details of various events that will be staged to mark this very special moment, which is another key milestone in the development of our Club.
A group of 34 racing enthusiasts established the Jockey Club back in 1884. I believe none of them could have imagined that the small private club would develop over time into one of the largest membership clubs in the region. I think too that it would have been inconceivable to them that the club would become the operator of one of the world’s top racing products and largest sports betting pools, let alone the enterprise that is the largest single tax and charity contributor in a city that is nowadays an established international hub for finance and commerce.
Over the past five years our betting duties and taxes increased by 44 per cent to nearly HK$20 billion a year. Our total economic contributions amounted to close to HK$32 billion last year, representing about 1.5 per cent of Hong Kong’s GDP in the corresponding period. As for our annual donations, they rose from HK$1.5 billion to a record high of HK$3.6 billion last year, supporting no fewer than 168 community and charity projects. The Club’s charitable contributions have also touched the lives of 75 per cent of the population in Hong Kong. From culture and arts to education, from elderly services to sports development, our contributions have been massive and we’ve implemented thousands of community programmes covering different aspects and aimed at a broad range of sectors over the past few decades. I can say that the fruits of the Club’s donations can be easily found all across the city!
I quote these numbers because they are an important measure and help to explain what the Club has achieved in the community and is committed to achieving going forward, but I think the most important thing to us is that we run our business in a way that keeps community interests at heart. We are not going to stay still and we will be working in a more proactive manner in the future, so as to join hands with everybody to make Hong Kong a better place. We will announce some of the major new initiatives and projects during our 130th Anniversary Raceday on 10 January, so you will know more details then.
We have prepared a large variety of celebration events in the next few months to share our joy and happiness with everybody in Hong Kong. We want this celebration to be a platform for sharing the Club’s traditions and achievements with our customers, Members and general public, enlisting our community partners and citizens so that they can all join us “riding high together for a better future”.
Also, our 130th anniversary website went live yesterday. You can visit the website and learn more about the Club’s history, its operation, our community contributions and details of our celebration events, and you can also participate in our online games for the chance to win fabulous prizes.
Today’s race meeting at Sha Tin will be the last race fixture before the coming Christmas holidays. I would like to take this opportunity to offer my early season’s greetings to you all. I wish you all Merry Christmas, and I hope that we can all enjoy happy times and warm moments with family and friends during the festivities. I hope you will enjoy it. See you after Christmas!
For the 10 races on the card, I will pay special attention to the Ho Sheung Heung Handicap, which is run as Race 9 on the Dirt Track over 1650m. This Class 2 event has an extended rating band ranging from 105 to 80, with one declared runner Kabayan, who is rated 102, being eligible to run in this race. The pace is expected to be good to slow with Trump probably taking the rails and leading with Approve who has to push forward from gate 10 to avoid being caught wide. Multiple Dirt Course winners Gun Pit and Eagle Power should be ideally positioned in the box-seat position behind them, while Chater Dream and Sichuan Vigour can also be well placed. Penglai Xianzi, Majestic Anthem and Noble Alpha are at risk to be trapped wide. Gun Pit is working well and is my first choice. Free Judgement is a course and distance specialist and should not be underestimated. The same applies to Majestic Anthem, who despite his gate, is a place chance for me. Kabayan, Trump, Approve and Chater Dream are interesting outsiders.
Comment
