HKJC CEO Blog

Though we are now in the summer weeks, there is no shortage of horse racing and football action either overseas or in Hong Kong.  Last weekend the focus of European racing was on Ascot Racecourse in the UK, which hosted one of the most important summer-time G1s in Europe – the King George VI &…

The summer months are usually a bit quieter for local football fans, but that's all changed over the past few days as four English Premier League teams are currently visiting Hong Kong – Manchester City, Sunderland and Tottenham Hotspur for the Barclays Asia Trophy this week, and Manchester United for an exhibition match on Monday. …

Our season is over and I have to say that it was a night of high drama at our season finale last Wednesday.  The atmosphere was electric from the more than 26,000 racegoers that joined us at Happy Valley for the races, and it is a long while since the racecourse was so full.  Those…

Despite a heavy downpour midway into our race meeting at Sha Tin on Sunday, the enthusiasm of thousands of racing fans on course could not be dampened and we had a very successful day race finale. It was great to see those fans cheer for their heroes at the Champion Awards presentations held throughout the…

The season end seems to have come around quickly and we now find ourselves heading into the climax, with the Champions Awards presentation ceremony to be held in our penultimate race meeting of the season at Sha Tin tomorrow.  It has been another exciting season and tomorrow some of the top performers will receive well-deserved…

Yesterday was a special day for the Club and an important milestone for racing development in Hong Kong.  The Legislative Council passed a law amendment bill on the Betting Duty Ordinance, which has given us the green light to set up two-way commingled pools with our partner jurisdictions overseas. The Club was in fact the first…

As it is early summer the sporting focus has been on events like Royal Ascot, the tennis at Wimbledon and the Confederations Cup in Brazil.  Many of you know that I particularly love horse racing and football, but as a sports fan my interest is by no means confined to those two sports – equestrianism…

With five race meetings to go it’s natural to take an even closer interest in the jockeys’ and trainer’s premierships. On the jockeys’ side of things Douglas Whyte is sitting in a commanding position after he landed a treble on Sunday and further extended his lead against Zac Purton to 11 winners.  That is a…

Just like the many racing fans watching on-course or through live broadcast, I was greatly concerned as I witnessed five jockeys fall during the unfortunate incident that occurred in the second race at Happy Valley last Wednesday.  I was watching the action from the grandstand and as soon as the fall happened, my concern turned…

With the exception of our international meetings, it’s not often that we arrange three trophy races in the same race day.  That being so, it was a rather special feat for trainer John Moore to claim a hat-trick of cup races wins with his stable runners in the HKG3 Premier Cup, Members Cup and Racing…