Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has pledged to “put on a wonderful show” for visitors to the Longines Hong Kong International Races in December, as the Jockey Club’s main event seems to be returning to something like normalcy.
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the city’s chief executive, is prepared to go all out to make the city’s racing spectacle a “big, huge worldwide event.”
After operating under considerable limitations for the previous two years, international day will be one of many items to gain from the government’s decision last week to lift hotel quarantine.
“Without a doubt, the government’s decision with the ‘0+3’ is a significant boost for international races.” “We will go all out to make it a huge, major international event with the greatest horses, trainers, and owners,” said Engelbrecht-Bresges, who claimed earlier this month that HKIR has a “unique chance” to promote Hong Kong’s reopening.
“It’s quite thrilling. We will go to great lengths to demonstrate that Hong Kong is open for business again.”
The previous two years, overseas participants were kept in a quarantine bubble, but this year, after three days of medical observation, they will be free to interact as usual.
According to Engelbrecht-Bresges, “for the first three days, we will put them in certain groups and we will conduct the monitoring, but it won’t be a tremendous annoyance like it was.”
“For us, it is crucial because it is crucial to demonstrate to the world that we have been through a really trying time, but that we are not frightened of difficulties and can rise to them fairly quickly.
“If there is a certain confinement for [foreign guests], one of the things we are working on right now is the organization of restaurants in our facilities for them so that they remain in this bubble. We will undoubtedly put on a nice performance, and it will be something really handy.
The World’s Best Jockey ceremony and a number of significant gatherings of international horse racing organizations are among the events that The Jockey Club hopes to hold.
As many as 11,000 people are anticipated to attend this Saturday’s National Day meeting, up from the weekend’s attendance of 7,274 individuals, indicating officials’ confidence in their ability to draw larger crowds in the months to come.
The number of attendees has decreased over the last three international days, with only 27,965 individuals showing up in 2019 following months of demonstrations and just 271 and 18,600 attendees, respectively, affected by Covid-19 legislation in 2020 and 2017.
Upcoming International Conference of Horseracing Authorities in Paris
Where the topics of the world pool, rules harmonisation, and climate change will be discussed, Englebrecht-Bresges will have the opportunity to promote HKIR in his capacity as chairman of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.
“The success of the global pool will undoubtedly be one of the subjects for the international conference. People who want to join the global pool contact us every day, and we want to increase its size, according to Engelbrecht-Bresges.
“Rules harmonization is essential, and one must note the current debate about the need for a forced disqualification after a certain amount of whip strokes.
“If put into effect as a modification to the way a horse is listed for wagering, it may elicit an intriguing response from consumers.
“Sustainability and [being] carbon neutral are another issue I believe racing has not yet addressed.
“It’s a huge problem for everyone, and the racing industry as a whole has to be ready for substantial changes to the way we do business. A research that we conducted will be one of the subjects.
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