Is there a chance that racing in Macau could be revived?
Is there a chance that racing in Macau, the world’s largest city of gamblers, could be revived once the privately owned Jockey Club is relieved of its licence on April 1?
Racing in Singapore was dead in the water from the moment the government last year announced it would repossess the Kranji site and close the sport down this October after 180 years.
“The Macau government has conducted a comprehensive analysis and determined that horse–racing operations have not yielded the intended socio-economic benefits,” the Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon said on Monday.
“Following the expiration of the contract, there will be no further public tendering for the operation.”
However, those close to the Macau shrinking racing scene – there are fewer than 300 horses at Taipa – still believe the once thriving industry can be saved.
Intriguingly, Macau Jockey Club director of racing Damian Yap told this column on Monday: “One thing I will say with Macau is if they leave it, let it die with a bit of dignity and then see if we can rebuild from scratch again.”
The Macau Jockey Club is currently led by the late casino mogul Stanley Ho’s fourth wife, Angela Leong On-kei. Ho, who led a consortium to take over the club in 1991, died in 2020 at 98 years of age.
From afar, it’s often pondered why the Hong Kong Jockey Club can be so strong while in Macau it’s been waning, the term used by Cheong to justify the government’s decision in its Monday announcement.
“The model in Hong Kong is a bit different. It’s a charity and in Macau racing is run by the private sector,” Yap says.
“In Hong Kong there’s only one betting medium [horse racing] apart from soccer betting. Here in Macau it is different because there’s plenty of casinos to go around and racing becomes the bridesmaid.”
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A filly by Coolmore’s shuttle stallion Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) topped the Magic Millions Yearling Sale, while a colt by Darley’s Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) was responsible for the second highest-priced lot sold at the Gold Coast last week.
The appetite for the progeny of the European superstars – and the fact US Triple Crown winner Justify (Scat Daddy) sired the Magic Millions 2YO Classic (RL, 1200m) winner Storm Boy – was arguably stronger than ever in a market where Australia’s champion stallions of the past six years, I Am Invincible and Snitzel, are aged 19 and 21 respectively.
The marketplace’s belief in the two shuttlers’ southern hemisphere-bred stock came at an important juncture for the Australian Stud Book, according to respected UK industry figure, John Warren of Highclere Stud.
An unabashed fan of Australian racing – Warren bought out his foal share partner to buy the sister to dual Group 1-winning filly Coolangatta (Written Tycoon) on day one – he warned of the dangers of breeders Down Under becoming too insular.
“I think the syndication process here is outstanding and obviously your prize-money is phenomenal. It’s a boom industry on the world stage, the government gets right behind it and I think you’re the envy of the world,” Warren said.
“[However] it probably has one aspect to perhaps overcome [and that is] to embrace the shuttle stallions, which makes the offspring of the shuttle stallions more internationally valuable.
“My only fear is that if it is not opened up to international stallions then I think the export of stock abroad becomes more limited.”
While two-year-old Storm Boy won the Magic Millions, another juvenile, Too Darn Hot’s million-dollar daughter Too Darn Lizzie, also won the fillies’ $500,000 The Debut (1000m) at the Gold Coast on Saturday.
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In keeping with the policy established under its former Australian managing director Vin Cox, Godolphin bought just one yearling at the Gold Coast – a $250,000 Extreme Choice filly on Saturday night . Cox’s new employer Yulong bought eight yearlings, two of them for seven figures, including the Saturday evening session’s $1.4 million top lot, also by the Newgate Farm super sire.
But Cox – and Zhang Yuesheng’s chief operating officer Sam Fairgray – were in many ways more reserved in their Gold Coast approach, concentrating on quality over quantity.
They also stuck to budgets, being under bidder on several six-figure horses. Demonstrating Cox’s austerity measures early on day two, Yulong bought a Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) filly from Newhaven Park for $410,000, but not before Cox pulled the bid back from $420,000.
Yulong also sold 26 of its 30 Book 1 yearlings on offer, at an average of $231,538, another sign that Zhang is prepared to meet the market, thus being an important cog in the bloodstock ecosystem without being a dominant force, even though money is seemingly no object.
Whether Cox’s influence on Zhang carries through to the mares’ sales at Inglis and Magic Millions, where – in the past – Yulong has spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring broodmares, only time will tell.
As an aside, it’s status quo at Godolphin, with no replacement named for Cox, but someone must have made an executive decision about attire because it was observed at a steamy Gold Coast that the Darley crew were wearing shorts instead of pants. Shorts never happened on Cox’s watch.
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In Monday’s edition of ANZ Bloodstock News, Adrian Bott claimed that winning the Sydney trainers’ premiership wasn’t a focus of his and or his Hall Of Fame senior co-trainer Gai Waterhouse.
“If it happens, that’s fantastic, but … we don’t have plans to expand the stable,” is what Bott told us when questioned.
And that may well be true, but you sense that incumbent premier trainer Chris Waller, who has been the top dog for the past 13 seasons, is well aware of the increased presence of Tulloch Lodge under Bott and Waterhouse and the rising Sydney focus for Melbourne’s leading trainer Ciaron Maher.
Waller will win the 2023-24 Sydney premiership again and he won’t be going anywhere any time soon, but the days of owners having all their horses with one stable seem to be over, even for the wealthy investors that Waller trained for during his dominance.
Waller and his loyal offsider Charlie Duckworth recorded post-sale videos each day promoting horses they’d bought and noting that shares were available in them.
The leading trainer spoke at a Racing Queensland-run owners’ morning ahead of the Magic Millions and stressed later that he wanted the general public to know he and his large stable was accessible to all and sundry.
He was pitching to the rank-and-file owner, more or less, the ones who have helped the reincarnation of Tulloch Lodge, the rapid rise of Maher and even Waller’s countryman, the Warwick Farm-based Kiwi Bjorn Baker.
Waller and his agent Guy Mulcaster signed for 20 Book 1 yearlings, ten of them at the sale average and below and three of them for $130,000, an affordable price for a high-end sale.
“[Magic Millions is] the greatest selling sale, so the shop window is bigger than anywhere else,” the champion trainer told us.
“Whether it’s the first sale of the year or whether it’s the timing, I am not sure, maybe it’s the way it’s marketed, but there’s certain aspects that make this sale very easy to sell [horses] out of.”
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Retired bush jockey Bryan Murphy, who rode with success across the New South Wales Riverina, Victoria and Queensland during his long career in the saddle, had the biggest win of his life yesterday – at the cricket.
The winner of more than 500 races during his career, Murphy was at the Adelaide Oval for day two of the Australia versus West Indies Test match where he took a skied catch to win $50,000 cash in the Bundaberg Rum Big Cash Catch competition.
Murphy, who hasn’t ridden in a race since 2020, maintained his rather calm demeanour even as those around him got caught up in the moment, only modestly raising his arms in jubilation.
The only person to take the catch in the Big Cash Catch competition this summer, Murphy was never one to get carried away, win, lose or draw, even when he had the added pressure of riding one of my horses.