Snow Storm is on the Derby road while Macau racing seeks direction
Macau’s triple crown races are on the horizon and trainer Joe Lau is hopeful that his promising four-year-old Snow Storm (Mossman) will make the strides necessary to give his stable a shot at a third win on the bounce in the Macau Derby (Listed, 1800m) at Taipa in late July, an achievement that would at least provide positive headlines for a jurisdiction in danger of being left adrift.
The conventional route would be via next week’s Derby Trial (1500m) but Lau will take a more prudent path with his inexperienced charge, who needs to pocket ratings points after only three starts.
“He’ll run next week but not in the Derby Trial because I don’t want to meet with the big boys yet, he’s on the upcurve and he’s getting better every day,” said Lau. “I’ll step him up to 1500 metres a week Saturday. I’ll take the easier path to go to the lower rating race.”
Snow Storm’s two wins in 1200-metre handicaps give him a rating of 52. The New Zealand-bred gelding is the first named foal out of the Group 2-placed mare, Royal Dominance (Shinko King), and was bought by owner Eric Chen as an unraced two-year-old, having been withdrawn from the 2018 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale.
“He disappointed me a bit but then he has come on in leaps and bounds since his first run when he was beaten. His win was pretty good at his second race when he ran into a bit of trouble. His next start he improved again and he won pretty well. The Derby is the plan,” Lau continued.
The skilled handler has won the Macau Derby four times already thanks to The Alfonso (Magnus), Sacred Man (Fastnet Rock), Sacred Capital (O’Reilly) and Sacred Magnate (Foxwedge), all in the last six years. If Snow Storm shows progress in his next run, it will be the Macau Guineas (Listed, 1500m) after that and then the Derby.
“It’s open this year: if I had to pick one now I’d pick Beauty Bolt, she has the best credentials,” Lau added.
The Stanley Chin-trained Beauty Bolt (Redoute’s Choice) races for Simon Kwok Siu-ming, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent owners, and arrived at Taipa boasting a fourth-placed finish in the VRC Oaks (Gr 1, 2500m). That is lofty form by Macau’s current standards, and provides needed gloss alongside the recent arrival of the top-class former Hong Kong galloper Thanks Forever (Duporth), who is expected to debut for the Nicholas Moore stable in September.
Kwok is just one of a number of Hong Kong-based owners supporting the sport in Macau. Covid-19 restrictions have not only prevented those owners from seeing their horses perform but also stifled interest and in turn investment, of which there seems to have been a noticeable lack from the Macau Jockey Club (MJC) in recent years. Observers on the ground say that a two billion patacas investment promised in 2018 does not appear to have been injected into the horseracing product.
Taipa racecourse opened initially as a trotting track in 1980 but Macau has a horseracing legacy that predates Hong Kong, back to the distant beginnings of the colonial era when Hong Kong’s ponies were no match for the Macanese horses.
Billionaire casino mogul Stanley Ho, owner of the Hong Kong champion Viva Pataca (Marju), tapped into that heritage after he bought a controlling stake in the Macau Jockey Club (MJC) in 1991 and helped lift Macau racing from a deep rut to a relative peak. Ho’s health failed in 2009 and he spent his final years hospitalised and unconscious until his passing a year ago at age 98; in that time, Macau racing suffered.
Race cards are down to five or six races with 313 horses listed in training, in comparison to more than 1,000 twenty years ago. Prize-money has stagnated, with last Saturday’s card offering average purses of 240,000 patacas (approx. AU$38,600) compared to Hong Kong’s average for its Sunday card of HK$1.125 million (AU$201,800); and revenue channels have been lost, notably when the Macau government last year stopped the simulcast arrangements with Malaysia and Singapore; the Macau-Hong Kong Trophy day simulcast was lost too.
Within the past two weeks, MJC’s chief executive Thomas Li, the son of major stakeholder Li Chi-keung, has resigned and taken up a token director position. A number of sources in Macau and Hong Kong suggested Ho’s son and MJC vice managing director Arnaldo Ho might take the reins, with his mother, businesswoman and politician Angela Leong, the main controlling stakeholder.
Thomas Li confirmed his resignation when contacted by Asia Bloodstock News but was not prepared to say anything more, while the MJC did not respond to requests for information regarding the club’s current and future management.
The insecure silence in Macau contrasts with last week’s fanfare from the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary when the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) signed the “Framework Cooperation Agreement” with Guangzhou municipal government, aimed at advancing its interests in Mainland China. An array of significant dignitaries attended the event, notably Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam, a long-time HKJC friend, as well as Guangdong Province’s governor, executive vice governor, vice governor and secretary general.
An official HKJC press release stated that the agreement “will jointly take forward the promotion and development of the equine industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” and “provides a solid foundation for mutual cooperation and collaboration for the realisation of the National Equine Industry Development Plan 2020-2025 promulgated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and General Administration of Sport last year.”
The details state that Conghua racecourse will stage race meetings in front of a new grandstand and upgraded facilities by 2025, and HKJC will provide necessary infrastructure, notably veterinary expertise and supply chains, while making moves to develop a breeding industry.
The gathering and signing, on one hand, was simply an official show of approval for a long-expected happening, yet on the other, the event is significant in cementing openly the collaboration between Hong Kong and mainland authorities, with HKJC working to establish its place within the Greater Bay Area development, a massive initiative for the southern Guangdong region to drive development and technological innovation as part of a national strategy allied to the Belt and Road initiative.
But what about Macau? Sources in Macau and Hong Kong take the view that there is no Macau in the agreement beyond the bureaucratic labels. The MJC did not respond to questions about Macau’s position relative to the agreement and the Greater Bay Area initiative.
It should be noted that while HKJC is continuing to make gains in China, it is not alone. Yulong Jockey Club runs a full race programme, while racing at venues like Wuhan and Chengdu is now longstanding, and Yulong, too, is just one of the operations already breeding thoroughbreds in China. The HKJC involvement is one piece of a bigger horseracing picture, albeit with ready-to-go expertise, big budget and infrastructure, and years-in-the-making relationships with Mainland authorities through its tech provisions for Chinese lotteries and the elite Beijing Clubhouse facility.
But in transplanting to the Mainland sphere, HKJC must evolve to fit the Communist Party of China’s (CCP) expectations. Involvement in Mainland China on the HKJC scale, as the signing highlights, is as much about politics as it is business relationships. The HKJC is already some way down the road in this process, with just one example being the appointment of Raymond Tam in August 2018 as the club’s executive director, corporate affairs. Tam is a former Hong Kong government Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, Hong Kong deputy to the 13th National People’s Congress and National Security Law advocate.
Notably, the agreement was one of a handful signed between Hong Kong and Mainland officials on May 14, all rooted in business and legal cooperation to enable Greater Bay Area development. As an example, Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng and Vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court Yang Wanming signed a mutual agreement that will enable insolvency proceedings between the Hong Kong and Mainland courts, whereby Hong Kong liquidators can approach Mainland courts for assistance with procedures and vice versa.
The HKJC’s strategic long game of embracing necessity in its prevailing and impending forms has bought it a seat on the Greater Bay Area development bus, while the MJC is in danger of being left to run along behind, waving frantically for a pick-up.
The HKJC made moves late last century to acquire its Macau counterpart but each time they pulled back. Given Hong Kong racing’s advancement in the past 20 years, one can guess at what Macau racing would look like if it had come under the HKJC banner. Current HKJC management has shown no appetite for racing in the casino centre, viewing it akin to a rapscallion step-brother with shady friends.
Yet Macau racing’s foundation suggests strong potential: it has some accomplished horsemen in situ and a track in a prime location, surrounded by a major hub for gaming, entertainment and tourism. Time will tell if Li’s resignation acts as a stimulus for vibrant management and new investment, or is simply the latest sign that the MJC is being left behind as the HKJC forges ahead with its new Mainland friends.