Veteran racing writer for The Age in Australia, Patrick Bartley was on TABTouch Radio recently and asked about the move by Racing New South Wales’ Chief Steward Marc Van Gestel, below, to Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Jockey Club in January, and when he takes over the reins from Kim Kelly. Handsome devil, isn’t he?
Kelly has been Chief Steward with the Hong Kong Jockey Club for twenty years, and it seemed to everyone in the racing game that the baton would be passed to his second in command- Terry Bailey. Of course, not everything always goes according to script.
The name Terry Bailey would be familiar to those who remember the days when he was making headlines as chief steward with Racing Victoria.
This was when everything that had anything to do with horse racing was thrown against the wall to see what would stick- levels of cobalt, the role of Sal Perna, integrity issues, watching the reputation of some trainers end up in tatters, various threats, Twitter on overload, altercations with jockey Danny Nikolic, below, and the purported victim of a drive-by shooting in broad daylight when he and his family were, mercifully, having lunch in the kitchen. It was a busy time...
Terry Bailey was then- poof- with the almost invisible operations of the Singapore Turf Club doing whatever he was doing there before his quiet and almost Keyser Soze-like move in 2020 to the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
What Patrick Bartley was talking about other than Bailey being somewhat surprisingly passed over for the number one position as Chief Steward was money- just how much money the Hong Kong Jockey Club has to almost always get their man- and whoever they want.
Someone in high places in Hong Kong asked me why a Chinese Chief Steward couldn’t have been found instead of an overseas hire, and, no doubt, brought out on one of those lavish expat packages that include the domestic helper, driver, and pukka five-star lifestyle away from it all.
This was easy to answer: there’s no such animal in Hong Kong with the knowledge nor the experience to step into the big boots of a venerable Chief Steward like Kim Kelly. The highly respected Marc Van Gestel fits the bill.
A similar question was posed by the same person of the fairly recent hire by the Hong Kong Jockey Club of the much respected Greg Carpenter, currently with Racing Victoria as Chief Handicapper until after the Melbourne Spring Carnival.
Again, no one could be hired in the same capacity from Hong Kong. It’s a specialised role.
Sure, over many decades, the Hong Kong business world and Hong Kong racing have brought out their fair share of, well, duds on expat terms. They’ve enjoyed their time in the sun in the city and have bailed with their golden parachutes firmly fastened.
This was especially true in colonial Hong Kong and which author James Clavell wrote about so knowingly in books like “Taipan” and “Noble House”.
Those, however, were very different times to the Hong Kong that’s in the here and now.
Today, apart from a focus on patriotism and ensuring that the city, above everything else, is safe and stable, and, of course, maintains a Zero Covid-19 mandate, everything else is in a state of constant flux, fear and confusion.
Does anyone even really work anymore, and just how effective are all those Zoom calls?
If Hong Kong had its own song, it would probably be “Ball Of Confusion” by the Temptations. And the beat goes on...
As for the upcoming Hong Kong horse racing season, it’s going to be like no other. To say that it will have its challenges would be an understatement.
After all, in a Hong Kong that’s changed forever, and where wearing masks is the official religion, this affects everything and everyone including the thinking of some of the key players in the horse racing game.
After a summer break from the almost Orwellian mood of the city, returning to more restrictions and another bubble preventing one from living life to the full isn’t for them. Hit it, Freddie...
Once considered the best racing jurisdiction in the world, Hong Kong racing has been travelling at half-speed due to all these various restrictions.
It is what it is and not what it was and it’s not exactly attracting the best in the world.
Sure, with its low taxes and generous expat packages, the Hong Kong Jockey Club can attract senior executive talent and jockeys like Silvestre de Sousa, below, whose star is so much on the wane in the UK that it can’t even be found these days. Of course, he would want a bite of the rich wild cherry while it’s still low hanging in there. Who wouldn’t?
How all this plays out in The Loyalty Stakes is worth following. It will certainly be absorbing theatre.
Horse racing will of course continue as there’s too much at stake for the Hong Kong Jockey Club and, let’s not forget how much the Hong Kong government coffers gain in taxes on betting.
Hopefully, however, this racing won’t take place under bubbles, bangles and beads and without the buzz of something approaching excitement.
More importantly, can horse racing somehow be seen as being something more than gambling by also working for the overall good health of a city on a drip and that needs oxygen and plenty of fixing?
As I keep chanting, Happy People, Happy City. Rather unfortunately, this isn’t Finland and there’s no Sanna Marin to make us get up and dance. Still, there’s always hope.
Here, the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club- Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges- someone with the best portfolio of any executive in horse racing- has read the tea leaves well.
How? By bringing in Dr Gabriel Leung, former Dean of the Faculty Of Medicine at The University Of Hong Kong to take over the running of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities.
It’s another new broom and a very different hire. Still, Gabriel Leung is only one man. He needs a team around him comprising academics, yes, and the streetwise who bring tangible solutions and creative thinking to the table.
This hire comes at a time when the role of the Charities Trust needs to be in line with life in 2022, and understands the importance of helping resett, especially the present and future of the city.
Right now, the mood of Hong Kong is pretty much like the Far Side cartoon below.
Amongst other things, the next generation of Hong Kong could definitely benefit from a well thought through and sustainable mentorship programmes that don’t look like corporate cookie cutter after-thoughts and the result of some knee-jerk reactions to ongoing problems from some old guys club.
There must also be specialists in how to cure everything that’s going around in waves of negativity and the affect this has on children.
This is something that needs to be worked on urgently with their futures in mind along with those of the families.
And what role, if any, do minority groups play in Hong Kong other than being domestic helpers, road workers and doormen? And what about their children?
The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities has done, and is already doing, much for the city. What would be unfortunate is if these Real Life Hong Kong Stories are buried amongst all the click bait and clutter that we continue to let into our lives.
This lowers the standards of everything and breeds mediocrity.
There’s no Don Draper in Hong Kong to show the way around all this and the importance of empathy and appealing to heart and head in honest and creative communications, but here is not the place to discuss this.
Action- and results- always speak louder than words- and it’s time for both without the usual serving of waffles and overthinking something obvious and turning it into a twelve humped purple camel.
