At every one of our racedays, there are thousands of full-time and part-time staff who work non-stop at the racecourse to ensure the race meeting goes off smoothly. Among them, one of the groups are always the first to arrive at the course and the last to leave. You may have guessed correctly and they are the racecourse cleaning workers.
I can tell you they all are very nice people and some of them will often wave or say hello to me when they see me at the racecourse. Several weeks ago, when I arrived early at Sha Tin for that day's races, I had the chance to talk to one of the female cleaning workers who knows a bit of English. She told me that there are more than 100 full-time and part-time cleaning staff now working at every race meeting in Sha Tin, and that their preparations often start as early as the day beforehand, as they have to do pre-race cleaning in the betting hall, grandstands, forecourt and parade ring. They then repeat the procedure shortly before the racecourse is opened to the public, so that racegoers can be sure of enjoying a clean and comfortable environment.
There is another shift of cleaning workers who will come in to help with the clean-up work after the racing finished and all the crowd left, she explained to me. Their first job is to pick up the unused betting tickets for re-use and the used ones for recycling. Then they go back to cleaning up the grandstands, forecourt and betting halls. Although this work takes several hours, meaning that it's quite late in evening when they get to leave the racecourse, she told me that many of them enjoy working with us on race days because as long as races go on in the season, it offers a very stable income to support their families.
My colleagues at the Track Department tell me that quite a number of our track attendants now work on a similar part-time basis, and some of them actually have other full-time or part-time jobs, for example working as cleaning staff at shopping arcades during the mornings. On raceday afternoons, however, they report for duty and are responsible for repairing the divots made by the horse's hooves after each race, to maintain the track condition and ensure the safety of our racehorses and jockeys in the subsequent races. I was told that even the full-time job of some of these part-time track attendants are now at risk, with their full time job employers have already started laying off staff under the current economic situation.
Apart from thousands of jobs created at the racecourses during race meetings, our racing operations also benefit many more people working in other businesses. I once took a taxi from our Club Headquarters to the Happy Valley Clubhouse and the taxi driver told me that many of his co-workers are not only racing fans themselves, but also earn a lot of valuable business on racedays from customers travelling to or from Sha Tin and Happy Valley.
Some years ago, he said, there used to be no taxi stand at the main entrance of Happy Valley Racecourse, so that racegoers who wanted to take a taxi home would have to walk a long way to get one. That didn't help either their business or our customers. Everyone is now much happier, though, the Club and the Police came to a new agreement, whereby a temporary taxi stand is set up at the end of Happy Valley racecourse during and after the races, allowing taxis to drop off or pick up their passengers close by. He told me his colleagues are pleased with this arrangement as it boosts their business and provides more convenience to racegoers.
It's nice to see that our race meetings create so many jobs for our staff as well as benefit people from other walks of life. It's something you might like to think about when you come to Happy Valley for this evening's meeting. Although I can't be there myself, as I'm now in Paris attending an International Federation of Horseracing Authorities meeting, I still hope you all will enjoy our exciting races tonight.
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