Nader leaving Hong Kong Jockey Club next year

Bill Nader, the former chief operating officer of the New York Racing Association, will leave his job as executive director of the Hong Kong Jockey Club early next year and return to the U.S., the HKJC announced on Tuesday.

Nader was hired by the Hong Kong Jockey Club in 2007. The release said he would leave his position as executive director at the end of his current contract and would remain with the company through January “to help with the transition.”

Nader had been with NYRA for 13 years before taking the job in Hong Kong. He started at the association as the simulcast director and rose to the No. 2 position before leaving in 2007, just after NYRA filed for bankruptcy amid a politically charged atmosphere over a controversial franchise extension.

The HKJC is a not-for-profit company that tightly controls all aspects of racing in the province. Handle at its two tracks averages $150 million a day.

Winfried Englebrecht-Bresges, the chief executive of the HKJC, said in a release, “Bill has been a key member of the board of management, responsible for implementing the overall racing strategy and developing a world-class and commercially attractive product.”

“As a fellow member of the board of management, I wish to thank him for being a wonderful team player and for his dedication and passion for Hong Kong racing and the club’s contribution to the community,” Englebrecht-Bresges said. “We shall miss him and wish him all the best in his future career.”