Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges

The 2020/2021 racing season in Hong Kong concluded July 14, with the Hong Kong Jockey Club reporting turnover in excess of HK$130 billion (£12.1b/€14.2b/US$16.7b) for the first time. A total of 88 meetings--one more than last season--were conducted between September and July, with no programs lost to the coronavirus. The HKJC staged 835 races at Sha Tin and Happy Valley Racecourses, and took 206 races from overseas for simulcasting purposes. Total turnover was HK$136 billion, representing a 12.1% increase over last season. The HKJC is the single largest taxpayer in...

In two frustrating and financially damaging racing seasons for Ascot, there has at least been a glimmer of light gleaned from its decision in 2019 to become involved with the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) and the UK Tote in launching the World Pool. In that debut year, £92 million was bet into the World Pool on racing at Royal Ascot. Amid an unthinkably torrid 2020 season, in which the Royal meeting was staged behind closed doors, that figure rose to £137 million. It improved again this year: four of...

An agreement executed Friday by the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) with the Guangzhou Municipal Government is set to strengthen the Club's foothold on the Chinese Mainland, with the prospect of staging "international-standard' racing at Conghua Racecourse (CRC), heretofore known as the Conghua Training Centre (CTC). Located about 200 kilometres and approximately a three-hour car trip (four hours by horse float) from Hong Kong, Conghua was opened to great fanfare in 2018. Built on 150 hectares on a site that hosted the equestrian events at the 2010 Asian Games, the...

World Pool betting will be available for the Dubai World Cup meeting on Mar. 27, the Hong Kong Jockey Club announced on Tuesday. The 2019 Royal Ascot meeting was the first time World Pool betting was available from the HKJC and resulted in a 60% increase in turnover. During the Mar. 6 Super Saturday card in Dubai, local turnover increased 28.5% and commingled turnover rose 38.7% with World Pool wagering available. Mr. Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the Hong Kong Jockey Club's Chief Executive Officer, said, "The commingling development in Hong Kong has...

The 2019-2020 racing calendar in Hong Kong was widely referred to as a "season like no other," and with good reason. Racing was threatened first by significant social unrest in and around Hong Kong, on one occasion, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, no more than a few kilometres from the stables at Sha Tin Racecourse. Having canceled just one meeting due to the protests, the local racing product was later confronted by COVID-19, a pandemic that shut down operations--at least for a time--at the vast majority of worldwide...

As a result of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in the country, all horse racing operations in South Korea will be suspended at least through Mar. 22. Alastair Middleton, an English racecaller for the Korean Racing Authority, reported the news in a tweet Wednesday. On Wednesday, Feb. 26, officials at the KRA announced that racing would cease in the country beginning Friday, Feb. 28 before the situation was reevaluated Mar. 9. A total of 12 meetings (including pony races) at the three KRA-owned facilities were to be canceled. An additional six...

Racing continues Saturday with a 10-race program at Sha Tin, even as the coronavirus outbreak that has its origins in Mainland China is causing some major contingency planning by officials at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Over the last few weeks, attendance at live meetings at Sha Tin in the New Territories to the north and at Happy Valley Racecourse on Hong Kong Island to the south has been restricted to those with pre-existing reservations, with public areas closed. The Chinese New Year racecard at Sha Tin, which normally attracts...