At last Sunday's Community Day meeting, our Chairman John Chan gave the Club's invited guests a brief account of the Club's financial forecasts for this year. He noted that while we expected our racing turnover to decrease only slightly by about one per cent, there would be a significant fall in our operational surplus, which would drop by as much as 80 per cent this season.
Nonetheless, Mr Chan gave his assurance that the Club would not only maintain its support for the local community, but would actually increase the amount of donations given to local charity and community projects, since many people were currently finding themselves battered by the sluggish economy and high unemployment.
I was therefore quite disappointed to read in the news reports next day that some individuals had commented that the Club should not be over-worried about a single year's decline in its surplus, and the need for the Charities Trust to draw on its reserves to fund the increased amount of donations. This is a rather narrow-minded view as it assumes that the sharp fall in surplus is only due to the poor economy, which is not the case.
Our gross margins on racing have been on a declining trend for several years now and that's why we've asked the Government to consider relaxing some of the restrictions placed on us, so that we can compete more effectively with the illegal and offshore operators. If we don't take action to halt the trend, it may not affect our charitable donations in the short term, but it will limit our ability to reinvest in our core racing business, which will have a much longer-term impact on the sustainability of our racing operations and therefore our continued support for the community. In addition, it will affect the security of the 25,000 full-time and part-time employees now working in the Club.
The Club and the sport of racing have always been an integral part of the Hong Kong community. As a not-for-profit organisation, we do not view racing merely as a business for the Club but also as a business for Hong Kong as a whole.
We have always believed that the further development of the sport will be advantageous for Hong Kong, as this will help us generate more tax revenues for the public coffers, and help more needy people to benefit from Club-funded social programmes. If we were to view the sharp drop in surplus as not a big deal, and have no regard to the long-term sustainability of our racing operations, I don't think that racing in Hong Kong would have a very secure future. So those expressing the view that this year's surplus is nothing to worry about are missing the bigger picture, and I don't think this is the vision we at the Club are sharing.
Anyway, tomorrow is the final race meeting of this season and I'm sure that everyone in the Club's team is committed to making it another memorable finale. Make sure you come along to Sha Tin to enjoy our last 11 races, to cheer for your racing heroes for their achievements at the Champion Awards Presentation, and to stay till the end of the day to participate at our spectacular closing ceremony on turf where Cantopop superstars George Lam and Vincy will join our jockeys to bid farewell to the racing fans.
Of the 11 exciting races of the card, I will be keeping an eye on the performance of Sapelli in the Merry Merry Handicap. This John Size-trained runner performed decently in his last run. With his trainer now trailing Casper Fownes 61-65 in the Trainer's Championship, I hope the horse to have some good performance to make the trainer championship contest to be more interesting today.
In the Hong Kong Racehorse Owners Association Trophy, Irish import Boss is the runner I will be watching in this race. This three-year-old has performed promisingly in his two starts of the season. He has shown great progress in his recent trackwork and let's see if he can get his maiden win at the end of the season. In the final race of the season – the Sha Tin Mile Trophy – Derek Cruz's Operation Secret has had very consistent performances, particularly at Happy Valley this season. Though he will return to race at Sha Tin today, I still think he is a runner that shouldn't be overlooked.
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