More huge betting pools expected as Hong Kong season opens
RACE REPLAY IS NOT AVAILABLE
During the new Hong Kong racing season that begins Sunday at Sha Tin, some of the horses will be shipping in from mainland China, while the circuit’s leading rider now is plying his trade in Japan.
Conghua Racecourse and Training Center, built and operated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, opened this summer in the Guangzhou District of Guangdong Province, a couple hours north of Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong. The facility, the first racetrack on the mainland, can house as many as 1,500 horses, and the HKJC hopes to host a showcase day of racing there, sans betting, in March.
In the shorter term, horses racing at Sha Tin and Happy Valley, the two Hong Kong tracks, now might be shipping south to start rather than running out of their own stalls at Sha Tin or taking the relatively short trip through Hong Kong to Happy Valley, which has no training facilities. Regardless, their every training action – from weights to daily exercise – will be closely tracked and recorded by the HKJC and made available to the masses of bettors who wager on the Hong Kong races.
And, boy, do they bet. Handle for the 2017-18 season, which ended in July, was recently released by the club and increased 8.1 percent over the previous season to nearly $30 billion.
A lot of that action in recent years has been directed toward Brazilian-born jockey Joao Moreira, but after making a lasting mark in Hong Kong, Moreira announced over the summer he was moving his base to Japan, where he is currently riding. The considerable hole atop the jockey colony is widened by the departure, too, of Australian rider Tommy Berry.
Karis Teetan, a 28-year-old native of Mauritius, finished a surprising third in the standings last year and could be a chief beneficiary of Moreira’s departure. Back to defend his 2017-18 riding title is Zac Purton, who rides all 10 races Sunday.
The club also saw a summertime shake-up in its executive ranks, with the surprising resignation of Tony Kelly, who had joined the HKJC only about two years earlier. Kelly oversaw a wide swath of the racing department and was rapidly replaced by the former New York Racing Association executive Bill Nader, who had left a similar HKJC job in 2015.
Nader will oversee a racing program that gains momentum into the winter, with the first Group 1’s of the season, the Hong Kong International Races, set for Dec. 9.
Sunday’s opening card at Sha Tin is a far cry from the four Group 1’s on the HKIR program and has a Class 1 handicap as its headliner. Race 3 of 10 on a card that begins at 1 a.m. Eastern, the Sunday feature is worth $334,400, is carded over 1,200 meters (about six furlongs), and drew just seven entrants.
Top-rated Southern Legend is set for his first start since May 26, when he captured the Kranji Mile in Singapore. Southern Legend has rust to shake off and distance questions to answer (Sunday’s race is shorter than ideal), while Winner’s Way, who is rated just below Southern Legend, raced in late June and better suits Sunday’s sprint trip.
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