HKJC CEO Blog

Ten meetings into a new season seems a fair point at which to assess developing trends and two of the most striking have been confirmed again this week. Despite strong headwinds caused by a pandemic that has tested all major sports like never before, it is gratifying to report that the interest in Hong Kong…

One month into a new season and there is drama aplenty in every corner of the racing world. On the home front, we have an interesting early contender for the 2021 Four-Year-Old Classic Series after the fast-improving Excellent Proposal advanced to a rating of 98 with another impressive Sunday success at Sha Tin. The recent…

Lady Luck has certainly been smiling on Hong Kong racing so far this season. As anyone who has been here will know, wet weather has been a recurring feature of the last month but things have cleared up beautifully on raceday and this week was a classic case in point. The sky above Happy Valley…

There are many ways of measuring the rise of a new racing star and all offer something different. Golden Sixty’s form line speaks for itself – with 11 wins from 12 starts including a clean sweep of last season’s Four-Year-Old Classic Series – but this is a horse whose impact is starting to resonate using…

Where do you begin with a race like Celebration Cup? The advance promotion bills the clash between Beauty Generation and Golden Sixty as a heavyweight battle between the Master Miler and the Golden Boy of Hong Kong racing. It’s a neat way of flagging up one of the most eagerly awaited duels we have seen…

And so the journey back towards what we once all took for granted is under way again. Sunday wasn’t the first time we have welcomed members and public back to Sha Tin since the pandemic began but this was a day that had a feelgood factor and a real sense of optimism on many levels.…

A cheer split the silence in the Happy Valley grandstand on Wednesday night as a small handful of happy owners encouraged Lightning Steed and Matthew Chadwick to an all-the-way victory in the fifth race. It wasn’t the sort of Valley roar we are used to and, for the moment, we are still some way from…

I think I speak for many people in Hong Kong racing in saying how desperately sad I was to learn that Pat Smullen passed away overnight. Pat’s achievements in the saddle were truly exceptional – he was Irish champion nine times in an era which featured fierce rivals such as Michael Kinane and Johnny Murtagh…

If 2020 has taught us anything it is that nothing can be taken for granted but, for the moment at least, things appear to be moving in a positive direction both for our city as a whole and for the racing industry that plays such a vibrant role in its weekly life. Hong Kong has…

The thrill of being at the races on the first day of a new season never gets old and, even without our usual crowd of 50,000 or more, Sunday at Sha Tin provided a perfect window into why Hong Kong’s world-class racing resonates all around the world. Racing fans from far and wide had a…