Nov 13, 20123 min read

THE CHANGE IS NOW ISSUE

With the Spring Carnival done and dusted for another year, the Breeders Cup come and gone and sadly lost on many racing fans outside of America. Ascot and Longchamp faint memories- we can’t even remember who won what at both events- and the Hong Kong International Races in December to bring the racing curtain down for 2012, we thought we’d take a break from punts and rorts and controversies and the hardcore world of horse racing.

With our mates at www.fasttrack.hk, WE-Enhance and soon some new partnerships, we are focused in bringing horse racing to a new and younger demographic who come to the races, but with many still clueless where to go to even make a bet simply cos they still don’t know HOW to bet on most anything other than a win/place wager.

If they lose, odds are they’ll yawn, look at their watches, text their friends and hit a club and never return. We’ve lost them ‘cos we didn’t respond to their wants and needs. Watching horses going around a paddock and voices droning on are not for them. Not for us either and which is why we feel that venues like the Beer Garden, Adrenaline, Stable Bend and The Gallerie at Happy Valley racecourse combine to be the new Lan Kwai Fong of Hong Kong. A Happy Wednesday night at Happy Valley is the most fun we- and Neil Paine and newbies to racing- can have with our clothes on for just a ten bucks entrance fee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ4WT-Id_dQ

So, just for a change and as a relaxant for our frame of mind, we’re leaving Terry Bailey and Racing Victoria, The Messiah, recent visitor to Honkers in The Plodder, The Not So Great One, Shifty Shades Of Grey etc and look at racing from a different point of view, one which brings the sport to those who know nothing about it in ways which might pique their interest and bring some much-needed coolness and newness to a one-time Sport Of Kings which no longer can be an elitist owned hobby. Nothing can be and Thank You, Steve Jobs for changing the world forever and making it One inter-connected World. What the Beatles did for music, Steve Jobs did for day-to-day communications. He shoot Coca-Cola, baby.

That old elitist club is dwindling fast and racing needs new blood in every aspect of the sport- the jockeys, the trainers, how horses are purchased, how racing is marketed, promoted and presented and how to make all this will be accepted by consumers in a consumer-driven world that has already turned its back on the music industry and made it a DIY world and with no need for recording deals, distribution and a fucking begging bowl.

The horse racing industry must embrace Change to move forward.

Dig one’s heels in and think consumers will passively buy crappy and irrelevant communications, and they’ll leave. They have hundreds of other options and the buffet table of gaming is now unlimited and available with the click of a button.

So, here we go hurtling into a helter skelter, Electric Ladyland whirl of other aspects of horse racing mixed with areas of entertainment that we are working 24/7 to bring together. Enjoy the ride.

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PETER COOK AND DUDLEY MOORE COMMENTATING ON A REAL PISSER OF A RACE.

STILL FUCKING BRILLIANT!

WHAT TO TAKE IN AFTER THE RACES

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ONLY THE JAPANESE COULD COME UP WITH THESE

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WEIRD RIDING TACTICS FROM THE STATES

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Okay, don’t all rush to buy a pair of these. We doubt even Francesca Cumani could pull off this look. Frannie? Oui?

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WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

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From left to right: Jimmy Cassidy, Damian Oliver, Hugh Bowman, Brenton Avdulla, Shane Dye , Corey Brown and Blake Shinn, Danny Nikolic and Trevor Bailey.

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