GAME OVER FOR MACAU
Racing in the Asian jurisdiction to close from April 1 as government pulls pin on the sport in the world’s gambling mecca
Racing in Macau, the birthplace of racing in Asia, will end at the beginning of April after the government confirmed on Monday it would remove the licence allowing a debt-ridden Jockey Club to continue running the colony’s once great thoroughbred industry.
The demise of racing in Macau did not come as a surprise to many, but the timing of the decision did, leaving hundreds of racing industry figures pondering what is next, while others hope the industry can be revived.
The sport in Singapore, another once thriving Asian jurisdiction, is also slated to end on October 5 this year, 16 months after the decision was made by the island state’s government to shut it down after 180 years.
Singapore’s trainers face uncertain futures with Michael Clements and Shane Baertschiger already calling it quits and other expatriate and local trainers are considering what to do next.
Now their peers in Macau face the same devastating fate – with just an 11-week grace period.
Eight-time premier Macau trainer Gary Moore, who returned to the gambling mecca last year to resume his career, declined to comment having only been informed minutes earlier that his stint at the Jockey Club would be over in a matter of just 11 weeks.
Rival trainer Joe Lau, whose son Aaron is an assistant trainer to Annabel Neasham in Sydney, also chose not to comment. Expatriate Australian jockey-turned-trainer Geoff Allendorf, who has spent 18 years in Macau, is another of the 12 local trainers and 15 or so jockeys impacted by the decision.
Horse imports to Macau were cancelled last year, leading to diminishing fields and heightening concerns about the long-term future of racing until it came to a head on Monday.
A former long-time Macau Jockey Club employee, who wished to remain anonymous, blamed ongoing mismanagement of the club over many years for racing’s demise.
They said the Jockey Club’s race meetings could be major Macau tourist attractions, but he said the lack of promotion meant the majority of visitors didn’t know that racing was on.
“It’s a great, great tragedy to lose Singapore, but lose Macau following on. It has a long-standing history of racing in Macau for hundreds of years – even the Hong Kong Jockey Club started off in Macau – and this is a result of terrible mismanagement over the years, the last decade of management has been just awful,” the source said.
“How do you have a racetrack in the middle of the greatest gambling hub in the world [that’s unviable]? Macau is the biggest gambling country in the world – we’re bigger than Las Vegas and we turnover more money than Las Vegas.
“It doesn’t make sense because the Chinese like to gamble.”
André Cheong Weng Chon, the Macau government’s Secretary for Administration and Justice, said the MJC had approached the government last year about relinquishing its contract to operate horse racing at Taipa.
The closure will impact 570 employees of the MJC, while the government says the 290 horses at the club will be moved to mainland China or other countries such as Australia and New Zealand by March 31, 2025.
Cheong claimed horse racing was “a waning industry in Macau, as well as in some neighbouring regions”.
“The Macau government has conducted a comprehensive analysis and determined that horse racing operations have not yielded the intended socio-economic benefits,” the secretary said.
“Following the expiration of the contract, there will be no further public tendering for the operation.”
Unconditionally, the racecourse site and the club facilities at the MJC will be returned to the government.
The MJC’s director of racing Damian Yap revealed that yesterday’s decision “was always coming”, but he has promised to remain on staff for at least six months after the club’s closure to ensure that horses are well cared for prior to being moved elsewhere.
“I am absolutely gutted,” Yap told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Horse racing has always been what we call the colonial heritage with Singapore going and Macau going, the whole thing. It’s a sad day for racing in general, full stop.”
A dejected Yap added: “Because of all the recent actions that have been taken, like no more horse imports coming into Macau, this was always in the pipeline.
“The date of the 1st of April comes as a little bit of a shock, as we thought we could get to the end of the season, but from April we’ll just have to battle on and make sure the horses that are left behind are well looked after.”
The Macau Horse Racing Company’s betting concession contract was initially granted in 1978. The lease was revised and extended in the middle of last year through to August 31, 2042, but the Macau SAR government yesterday rescinded the deal.
The club has been battling increasing financial losses for many years and in 2018 it was threatened with the loss of its contract if it did not repay debt of MOP153 million (AUD$28,401,928) to the government.
However, the Jockey Club’s financial pain – it recorded a MOP1.9 billion (AUD$352.7 million) loss in 2022 – was exacerbated due to Covid, which brought the gambling mecca of Macau to a standstill.
Speculation has been rife for months that a white knight may be found to save racing at the Taipa venue, but ANZ Bloodstock News understands that Chinese billionaire Zhang Yuesheng, the Yulong founder, considered by many to be the man most likely, won’t be that person.
Multiple sources yesterday ruled out Zhang’s interest in taking over the contract in Macau if the government chose to reissue a licence.
Magic Millions’ sales director David Chester, who first started going to Macau “last century when we had three auction sales”, still holds out hope that the industry in Macau, which now plays second fiddle to Hong Kong racing, could be saved.
“It’s really sad as Macau could be so good. Everyone loves going there with the casinos, the restaurants, it’s just a really fun place,” Chester said.
“It’s a little bit like the Gold Coast in a way, without the Pacific Ocean, without the beaches, so I cannot work out why the Macau Jockey Club has not been more successful in the past few years.
“It’s just a tragedy to me, but I am hopeful that the Macau government looks at other options and that it’s not going to close forever. Maybe they might be able to find someone else interested in taking it over. I haven’t given up hope that it’ll continue, but it might be a while [before it resumes].”
New Zealander Shane Crawford of Regal Farm, who was on the Gold Coast yesterday for the Magic Millions’ Book 2 sale, spent a decade as a track rider in Macau from the mid-1990s.
He described Macau as once a melting pot of personalities from around the world who were attracted to the glitz and glamour of the then two-to-three meetings a week racing schedule.
“I definitely went there in the best days [of Macau racing], that’s for sure,” Crawford said.
“I think it’s been a great place for a lot of people and to see that just go, probably similar to Singapore. There’s a lot of memories there for a lot of people and I’d almost call it my second home.
“I was there just shy of ten years, so I had a really good stint there, but it was definitely the best days.”