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Get some accreditation and turn up for the international races at the end of April, Pru. I cannot commend the deal too highly.
Racing is quite popular in Hong Kong even though there are no legal bookies. Inexplicable if you believe what our "bookmaking industry" (read "organised scam" if you like)claims to contribute to the sport in Britain. Just the 96,000 fee paying customers last Saturday. But of course very few of them are interested in betting since no fixed odds available, which is probably why they only turned over HK$1.261 billion between them (just over £100 million)that day. Around £11 million to the government. Around £4.2 million for the Jockey Club to spend on prize money and charitable initiatives.
They had a scratch card competition in which the prizes were worth more than an entire Saturday racecard in Britain.
That’s one day’s racing.
Poacher turned gamekeeper maybe, Ricky. But I’d rather be working for a system I believe in than turn out what are effectively pro-bookmaker press releases for a newspaper that depends on the bookies for its existence.
Remind me again how much we manage to squeeze out of the bookies in Levy.If British racing fans realised there was an alternative
they’d be imitating the action of the Tunisians and Egyptians, wouldn’t they?
That alternative being . . .
Staging just 83 meetings per annum
Reducing the number of racetracks to two
Increasing the population density from 642 per square mile to 6,544 per square mile (most within easy reach of our two tracks)
Changing the culture of the British so their appetite for betting matched that of the Chinese.Imperfect as it is, I think I’ll settle for what we have, thanks.
Still the fantasy persists that British punters want to be monopolised into Tote betting and now it seems into Tote betting on faraway races in strange and very exotic places.
The
cognoscenti
just cannot understand why us down-and-dirty UK punters won’t buy into all that glitz and glamour. Why we cling to that bumpkin jumps racing. If only we were, y’know,
educated
dammit.
18-28% rakes eh?
Lovely stuff.
Mike
Hi Zorro,
Ignore the heckling from the two suffering from Stockholm Syndrome above.
You had an exchange with Geoff Banks on twitter about Curley, where you intimated that you’d soon be giving it both barrels on the website you mention. When’s that likely to be published?
Some good stuff here , was fun looking at the posts we made over 2 years ago , yes its true Corm nailed it…… apples and pears,,,,comparisons are idyllic…..still Betfred will own a AW racecourse with fixtures soon , the whole nature of our racing will take another turn ,, I truly hope it will be for better , but forgive me for not expecting too much
Good to see you posting again Zorro , the master punter dreams on …nothing much has changed here , except we have a shed load of racing class 5 or worse, which dilutes and in my opinion drags British racing to the basement level
Glen I believe you will be posting the full report on the Zarooni affair in due course ….
imo
Ricky, the Al Zarooni case underlines what’s been discussed here. In Hong Kong, owning horses is economically viable. As a result owners are limited to a couple of horses and have to sometimes go in waiting lists to get those. There are no owners that are bigger than the sport.
Here ownership is more concentrated, with the jobs of thousands dependent on the continued patronage of certain individuals. There is nobody waiting in the wings to replace them willing to fork out six figures to run in minor races at Nottingham. Realpolitik will often take over as a result.
British racing is very fragile indeed. As a result The Rabble often wield no power at all.
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