It’s not gambling, but what horse racing offers many in Hong Kong at a time in the history of the city when nerves are frayed and there’s a need to turn off minds and float downstream, is an almost meditative way of changing one’s mindset and astral travelling somewhere else for around four hours.
This “somewhere else” is the race track at either Shatin or Happy Valley and the chance to get lost in thundering hooves, working out who will win what race.
After this are the various post-race analytics and conspiracy theories that keep the mind happily occupied.
Anything is better than the latest Covid-19 updates, and the almost never-ending social distancing measures and/or colour coding apps needed for people to escape and enjoy living a full life.
After over two years, there still might not be any ‘live’ music to fill one’s head and move one’s body, but there’s horse racing to at least make one breathe and exhale whatever negativity is going on internally.
It made me think back to one of my now late spinster aunties who used to take hours picking her selections every race day and then watching the races to see how she did.
At no point did she place any money on her choices. It was just a game where she challenged herself and kept her mind busy.
She knew the names of the jockeys and the horses racing and had her own views on who “tried” and who didn’t.
I remember that she always followed the combination of the grey Quicken Away whenever ridden by Nigel Tiley, and “considered” SCMP tipster Peter Metrevelli’s selections as he was the son of trainer Nick Metrevelli.
Listening to some of my Hong Kong Chinese friends these days discuss the races days before they are run, and then the various post mortems, always remind me of my aunt. It’s quaint and free therapy.
These are the true Hong Kong racing fans. They know when jockeys and trainers, and even owners, have birthdays, and cannot be talked out of believing that there will be “presents” for them somewhere during that race day.
The other day, the burning question amongst some racing fans and mentioned to me was whether Lyle Hewitson would take over the reins when Zac Purton and João Moreira call it a day.
Hopefully when that day arrives, I would be on my yacht somewhere outside of Cannes and being fed grapes by nubile nymphs from Estonia and Lithuania.
Again, for these Hong Kong horse racing fans it’s not about the $10-20 they wager, but fun oneupmanship to while away the time and seeing where and how this time leads can be harnessed and better used.
Reading reams and reams of space in the Sunday Post devoted to the branding and re-branding of Hong Kong over the years and with plenty of verbiage, everything said could be boiled down to this: Everyone is an expert and everyone believes that they have solutions.
Maybe, they do have solutions other than the obvious, but there cannot be one solution to everything.
As the saying goes, one size doesn’t fit all, especially in the problematic and nervous Nelly Hong Kong we find ourselves in today.
What’s needed are triple and quadruple and more multi pronged strategies- marketing and branding, yes, but also one holistic approach using common sense.
Common sense is in short supply and in dire need everywhere around the world. It boils down to understanding the importance of there being different strokes appealing to different folks.
It’s not unlike those homegrown Hong Kong horse racing fans mentioned earlier, and how much their favourite pastime means to them for their mental health.
Often, all these self proclaimed experts on life miss the obvious and don’t see how and where the invisible dots can connect.
Many have been blindsided with so much clutter for so long that they cannot see the simple creative equation, where Shiny Happy People Make A Shiny Happy City, and work from this starting point towards making things happen.
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