HKJC CEO Blog

I hope all of you are enjoying a pleasant summer. On Tuesday, our Chairman, Dr. Simon Ip and I were in Deauville for our annual reciprocal races with our friends in Deauville, the Group 3 Prix Gontaut-Biron Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Prix du Hong Kong Jockey Club. Prior to racing, we both visited…

Last week Hong Kong played host to the Premier League Asia Trophy, which featured Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Liverpool and West Bromwich Albion. The event is part of the Premier League’s ongoing development of the sport throughout Asia, and the tens of thousands that enjoyed the action at Hong Kong Stadium saw Liverpool emerge victorious…

We had more than 21,000 racegoers on track at our final Happy Wednesday meeting of the season earlier this week and they were treated to some phenomenal finishes. Happy Valley Racecourse is a real treasure and an incredibly popular tourist attraction, and I was delighted to see so many enjoying the fun and games in…

Our annual Champion Awards gala is this Friday, followed by the distribution of the Most Popular Jockey, Tony Cruz Award and a full ceremony to celebrate our Champions at the Season Finale race meeting on Sunday. Two winners have their names firmly engraved on the trophies at this point for their record-breaking seasons, Joao Moreira…

The graduates from our Apprentice Jockeys’ School (AJS) have enjoyed many accomplishments in recent years, all after emerging from the intensive programme the Club offers. While they all started as basic racing trainees, those on the path to becoming an apprentice will be engaged in roughly three or four years of curriculum, accredited by HKCAAVQ,…

On Wednesday, the Club announced a donation of HK$1.244 billion to the University of Hong Kong for the establishment of the Centre for Clinical Innovation and Discovery and the Institute of Cancer Care – the first purpose-built cancer specific research and service centre in Hong Kong. The donation was the largest single sum the Club’s…

I had a fruitful, albeit short trip to England for the final day of Royal Ascot and had the opportunity to speak with many key European connections while taking in the exciting races, including meeting the Coolmore and Godolphin connections. Given these early discussions, there is significant interest among them and many others for our…

We announced our latest football development partnership with Manchester United this week, as their U-16 team will visit Hong Kong for the first time. They will engage in an intense football and cultural exchange with our elite youth players in the JC Youth Football Academy Summit in mid-August. It was a great delight for me…

I hope you all enjoyed last night’s races from Royal Ascot. It was particularly exciting to see Lady Aurelia win the King’s Stand Stakes, the first three-year-old filly to win the race in its Group 1 history, and by an impressive margin of three lengths. It was a fantastic win. There were quite a few…

We are approaching the final few weeks of our local racing season as there are only eight more race meetings on the docket. But next week is a big one on the global calendar and our racing fans will be treated to three simulcast evenings from Royal Ascot. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, we will…