As we have been banging on about for over two years, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but horse racing, especially, when Hong Kong plays host to Le crème de la crème of the international racing world and when even the Queen’s horse is competing, well, racing stories cannot only be in the racing pages as this event is much more than horse racing whereas horse racing as a form of mainstream entertainment cannot be pigeon-holed. It is an experience to be shared and talked about long after the event has come and gone. And Hong Kong can be the leader in making this happen.
The sport cannot and will not survive if promoted in some myopic old-fashioned way at a time when there is a buffet of online gaming options available. At least as far as Hong Kong is concerned, horse racing cannot be trivialized by the Government first- a government facing very serious vote of No Confidence- and organizations like the Hong Kong Tourist Association and the totally inept and scarily quiet CreateHK and InvestHK which the public subsidizes and gets zero in return not playing a role in the HKIR. This event can give the city the USP it is sorely lacking right now. And Jackie Chan and shopping are no longer USPs and “Feel It, Love It” is an empty theme when we’d rather be “Lovin’ It.”
With CreateHK, Duncan Pescod, the Permanent Secretary for Transport and Housing, has much to answer for the hyped up promises he made before the organization was set up and which now just flounders along like a white elephant looking or something to do.
What’s that, Dunk? CreateHK will make Hong Kong a leader in creativity and will be led by a world-class creative person? White man speaks with forked tongue, Kemo Sabay.
For all that hype we had to read from him, Pescod should face the same type of grilling which Michael Rowse had to deal with when head of InvestHK and he was left holding the bag for the wheeling and dealings of others for the HarbourFest farce in 2003 and where many sucker- punched Hong Kong and made millions through dummy companies and paying themselves handsomely for a rock concert that was an obscene sham and scam.
The Hong Kong International Races is no scam. But if it keeps being promoted and marketed in the same ways and to the same people and with very little to attract a new and bigger audience, this will be a real pisser. And simply using social media tools just ‘cos everyone else does, isn’t going to work. The medium is the message and if the messages are clutter and those twittering, for example, don’t know a hashtag from hash-browns, it is a futile exercise.
As for next week’s Hong Kong International Races, if betting people, there will be brilliant supplements in newspapers offering the form of the local and overseas horses, interviews with all the leading players whereas on track, the International racing worlds will collide, stories will be swapped, there will be so many tips floating about one will need a fly swatter, the races will be run and won, some goofy mascots will cheer on the Hong Kong runners, there will be fireworks, a great time will be had by all, post mortems will take place and that will be it until next year.
Sorry, but this and a front page photo of the event the next day that will mean squat to those who have no interest in racing is just not good enough. It might only matter to the racing fan being informed of something they know and something for the scrap books. And if they already know about it, it wouldn’t matter.
Just as those newbies who wish to come racing- and do- but with no idea on how to bet, there is a need to think outside of the square and for racing to walk into greener pastures and communicate with that huge market that still does not understand the sport nor appreciate the human and equine talent involved.
This can only happen through teamwork- and hear us out here: It’s great having a global brand like Longines sponsor the event.
It’s great to have more prize money and for there to be record attendances and turnover. And then what?
What has this accomplished for Hong Kong and what does the Hong Kong Jockey Club get in return?
We fully know what the Hong Kong Government will receive from what will be paid through taxes, but what exactly has the Government and it’s useless government bodies done to work WITH the HKJC and turn this event into a truly HONG KONG showpiece and not only an HKJC showpiece?
As the latter, it falls under that taboo word called “gambling”, and those who don’t understand the sport will dismiss the event as being only for a group of rabid punters without having any understanding of how this one event- and racing in general- benefits Hong Kong and how it can benefit this city even more. Exactly how much the HKJC does for this city is, sadly, lost in the small print and it is high time it stopped being a Rodney Dangerfield and, also being Hong Kong’s biggest employer, gets the respect it deserves.
The Hong Kong International Races and the entire Hong Kong International Races Week- and think of the key word used to name these events- International- should not be carried only on the shoulders of the HKJC and where the Club giveth and the government, as usual taketh away. This is unfair.
As a Hong Kong event, where is the Hong Kong Tourist Association and what have they contributed towards this event? Have they done ANYTHING? And what about CreateHK and InvestHK? This last question is especially aimed at our old mate Duncan “Donut” Pescod when one thinks back to the absolute bullshit he shoveled our way about CreateHK- what it will mean to Hong Kong and the “worldwide search” for the right person to lead it. And look who this person turned out to be? Jerry “Gonads” Liu! Plus, ever tried to get anything outta CreateHK?
And Jerry? Please shuddup.
Surely, they could help as both government organizations are seemingly doing sweet fuck all at the moment while Hong Kong sits and watches a Chief Executive bumble his way through from one mess to the next with the local media hell-bent on making illegal structures sound as evil as Damien.
Next week, Hong Kong International Races Week gets up and running with the annual International Jockeys Challenge.
We will be there for it this Wednesday at Happy Valley and, through the gentle and sledgehammer powers of persuasion, with us will be a section of the media to whom horse racing is some alien sport with little aliens competing for honors. They will be very surprised and they will be converted and diverted and write about this sport from a completely different point of view.
Often times, we who almost live and breathe racing, cannot or refuse to see the forest for the trees and the gumnuts from the coconuts. We become lemmings and we all fall down together with the blinkers on.
But with new ways of looking at things, piggy-backing on the marketing skills and data bases and very different customer segmentations of other businesses and industries after the same sliver of a fast-diminishing consumer pie, the circle expands along with the thinking. Brains also need workouts.
We want to see the Hong Kong International Week be much more than it is as it deserves to be much more than it is. We don’t wish to see it headed off at the pass ‘cos of the word “racing” and being marketed only to racing fans. There is enormous wastage in communicating to an already captive audience who will always be there though “always” can slap you in the face when you least expect it. Just as in any relationship, nothing can ever be for “always”.
The Hong Kong International Races must live up to its name- and truly be International and show Hong Kong what this means and how much bigger it can be with partners like the HKTA etc. It can also attract those who might see for themselves a role in racing which works for them and help take the sport further and changes its perception into being an experience that belongs in the wider world of entertainment.
Apart from a brilliant sponsor like Longines and its main and supporting cast of owners, horses, jockeys, trainers and fans, the Club needs team players from other fields and industries to make this a bona fide International event that will place Hong Kong on the global map and not just for racing, but also for the overall experience and one which will be remembered for more than a day. The event has so much going for it and needs those NOT in horse racing to understand, appreciate and be ENTERTAINED by it.
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