Sha Tin Diary: Graham Cunningham Thursday update

Friday April 25: Change in the air as worldwide WEB holds court

Friday morning during any major HK race week means only one thing. WEB of the HKJC and the ARC and the IHFA is doing the media rounds.

And in a plush Inner Circle room within the Champion Circle suite at Sha Tin racecourse, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has plenty to say on a range of key issues.

FWD Champions Day

"Depending on the weather we expect 35 to 40,000 people and I think this is one of the best Champions Days we have had. Covid changed patterns but we are delighted to have high-class horses from around the world, especially those from Australia including Mr Brightside.

"We have not yet convinced Godolphin and Coolmore to embrace this event fully but this event has the chance to grow even more and having a horse like the King George winner Goliath – with an owner who is keen to make a mark on a global stage - is great."

World Pool developments

"The World Pool will grow further and we are very optimistic that the Hong Kong government will give us more slots for Simulcasts so we are able in the next two years to cover nearly all the top hundred races in the world, which will unlock significant new revenue streams which are extremely important for the racing industry.

"We have much more potential, especially with more exotic and jackpot bets. Technology is still an issue in some countries but we must differentiate the World Pool from fixed odds.

"One of the biggest issues is jackpot bets. Jackpots will drive behaviour change - then you can sell more of your other products - and I am optimistic we can make progress in this area within a two-year window."

Building a sporting brand

"I want to see more international horses attending key meetings to build a brand. We will never have the same as F1 but certain race meetings will get bigger, so how can you create the platform for these meetings to connect better?

"A lot of people think bonuses will work – I’m not sure. They often work for the first leg or second leg but very seldom for the last leg and I believe the sport must combine world-class entertainment elements so that global lifestyle brands will consider horse racing as a marketing investment.

"Linking the Breeders’ Cup with HKIR is not mission impossible, for example, and if you had the top eight racing events in the world truly connected then maybe you would have a private equity company buying into it. But first comes the philosophy that racing is an aspiration global sport with a common branding with the World Pool underlying it as a secondary platform."

Growing racing’s customer base

"Our biggest problem is a shrinking customer base, an ageing customer base and lack of understanding and interest in the sport itself. If you look at future funding, you must widen your funnel of racing fans, and I personally think the best way to widen it is to encourage a much more global perspective.

"When Japanese horses come to Hong Kong it creates a significant interest here. If Romantic Warrior goes to Japan or to Saudi, then those stories will create a much wider interest and potential to build a fanbase.

"It all comes back to the beauty of horses and the love of horses, telling the story of their dynamics, their energy and the bond between horses and human beings. That is much more important than only trying to sell a product that leans just on wagering."

The keys to progress

"I am convinced that emotional connectivity is key.

"Romantic Warrior’s world tour in the last 18 months has been amazing. It creates new fans, it creates media interest outside the classical racing area and therefore we must get out of our cell and build this global brand. This global product must include much more Asia than people thought ten years ago and the Middle East is also one of the game changers.

"Goliath’s owner John Stewart is a classic example of the new approach to global exposure. It will be interesting to see how the old breeding dynasties continue but if we do not widen our fanbase globally, if we do not rejuvenate that fanbase, we will become a dinosaur in ten to twenty years."

Affordability checks

"The inherent issue for successful fixed odds punters is that they are cut out and only permanent losers are accepted, but World Pool shows that when you combine liquidity globally it has a positive effect.

"So what we must do globally as a racing industry is drive pool sizes and create a World Pool wagering platform where we work even more closely to create meetings which have a different standard of presentation, integrity, broadcasting, information and decision making. Everything stems from that."

Economic uncertainty and racing

"It’s probably different from country to country but I am not optimistic this will disappear within in a short period. We have a high resilience, but it impacts us most in our top customer segments, namely owners.

"The implications of destroying technology infrastructure from the USA are massive. It may be different in Europe but I think that, over five to ten years, it plays massively into the hands of top-class Chinese technology. You will see a delay in investments due to uncertainty. You can manage risk, but you cannot manage uncertainty."

Racing in Mainland China

"We will stage out first full meeting at Conghua in October 2026 and to have official endorsement for racing without wagering in Mainland China will make that our day of the century.

"The grandstand will be iconic and this is our first chance to reach out and connect with a huge audience who are not familiar with racing.

"But again, it goes back to customer centricity. The first attempt will not be perfect – as this is something we have never done before - but we will learn as always and this is perhaps the most ambitious project we have ever undertaken."

Thursday April 24: Yin and yang as Luck comes to the fore

One way or another – and especially on barrier draw day - it’s all about Luck.

Nick of that ilk is in his usual master of ceremonies role as the fields for three FWD Champions Day contests worth well over £7m are finalised in a steamy Sha Tin paddock.

Chattering connections of 37 Group 1 hopefuls are anxious to avoid the outside gates as they wait for the Lord and his perky presenting partner Heidi Chu to reveal their fate.

And the trainer of this weekend’s flagship horse confesses that his two lengthy stints in HK have made him reliant on a specific outfit and a regular routine when the world’s highest rated sprinter is in the spotlight nowadays.

If the suit fits….

KA YING RISING has done a fair job of making his own luck over the last fourteen months, winning eleven in a row and breaking Sha Tin’s historic 1200m track record twice with astonishing panache under Zac Purton.

Those who think Sunday’s Chairman’s Sprint Prize is a formality will surely have to trade at 1.2 or shorter again but Hayes is adamant that a certain set of circumstances must be in place to ensure all goes smoothly.

“He started winning very well when I was wearing this beige suit from Sam’s Tailor with a bright blue tie and so I’ve carried on wearing the exact same outfit for ten races in a row now,” says the veteran of a century of G1 scores.

But a little digging from this intrepid reporter – who also ended up setting his stall much more on luck than he once did during his HK residence – hints that Hayes’s determination to ward off ill fortune has taken on an added dimension.

“Gee, your mail is good,” chuckles Hayes when asked about the way he likes things set up as his stable star is entering the gates.

“I’m probably more superstitious than religious and I watch him run on the television near the weighing room scales standing in a set formation with a couple of guys who work for the Jockey Club media team.

“I’m not a big spruiker (shouter) through the race but the way we do it seems to be working so far and if I happened to spill coffee or a snack on the suit on Sunday morning then I’m pretty sure I’d still be wearing it in the afternoon.”

Newnham making a Wish

Hayes was thrilled to see Ka Ying Rising drawn 4 for Sunday’s sprint showdown and signed off by saying “he should be a genuine $1.10 or $1.20 chance – and if he is better than $1.20, then back him.”

A few fellow leading players weren’t quite so bullish about their Sunday prospects but Thursday morning did throw up a few more notable quotes and a sad story from a few miles away in Mong Kok.

Hayes’s Aussie counterpart Mark Newnham has made an impressive start to his HK career and isn’t perturbed by the fact that his BMW Hong Kong Derby runner-up MY WISH will weigh in for the FWD Champions Mile at some 250lb lighter than likely favourite VOYAGE BUBBLE.

The four-year-old is very small by HK standards – just 989lb when beaten a short head from a bad draw in the Derby last month – and an international rating of 109 leaves him 11lb behind the Bubble and Aussie star MR BRIGHTSIDE.

But Newnham feels he has a genuine G1 prospect on his hands and isn’t too concerned with those who insist that Size matters.

“Ninety-five per cent of the horses in HK are big, so if only five per cent are under 1000lb there won’t be many good ones,” he reasoned.

“But I think that’s a bit overplayed, really. My Wish is a very talented horse and if it was all about size then a cow would be faster than a rabbit!”

Bott on the landscape

King George hero GOLIATH continued his FWD QEII Cup prep on the AW and Baron Philip Von Ullman – who owns the gelding with American businessman John Stewart – rattled off a wish list of international targets that would give him more passport stamps than Lord Luck himself.

The bold Nick fulfilled one of his KPI’s by bringing one of ROYAL PATRONAGE’s part owners Ray Montague close to tears while assessing the former Royal Lodge winner’s Champions Mile prospects.

And Adrian Bott, who trains Royal Patronage in tandem with Kentucky Derby bound Gai Waterhouse, gave another broad hint that Aussie raids on British and Irish stables are here to stay.

“The landscape has changed dramatically but so has our prize money and Royal Patronage is an example as he was able to pay for himself in his first preparation,” he said.

Former Triumph and Lonsdale Cup winner Vauban won a G3 on his first start under the Waterhouse & Bott banner and, having failed to fire when fancied in the last two Melbourne Cups for Willie Mullins, the chestnut is on a break with a view to contesting the race that stops a nation yet again in November.

High rolling pensioners caught in the act

Now to that strange story from Mong Kok, where two elderly gents and a 65-year-old lady from mainland China have been arrested after trying to open a Standard Chartered account using 999 banknotes supposedly worth HK$500m (around £50m) apiece.

Alarm bells soon rang among bank staff given that HK’s highest denomination banknote is worth ‘just’ $1,000.

Police investigations are ongoing into a deposit that would have come to a scarcely believable HK$5 trillion (or £500 billion) had the notes been legit.

But reports that the plotting pensioners were preparing to take the Hayes advice and back the truck up on Ka Ying Rising at 1.3 seem to have little substance at this stage.

Wednesday April 23: Champs Day stories will Run and Run

Just after seven on a sultry midweek morning and the Champions Day media bus winds its way past and through a series of familiar locations.

Kowloon Tong, the Sir Run Run Shaw building and the Lion Rock Tunnel all slip by on the way to Sha Tin racecourse, where a phalanx of international G1 winners lope onto the turf for a significant session with a strong Japanese flavour.

Former Japanese Fillies’ Triple Crown winner LIBERTY ISLAND lost a few admirers with a plain eighth behind Soul Rush and Romantic Warrior in the Dubai Turf but wins a few back with a strong turf workout, while fellow QEII Cup contender PROGNOSIS emulates her with a 21.2s final 400m ahead of his bid to make it third time lucky in Sunday’s big race.

Barrel chested Kiwi star EL VENCEDOR (which means The Victor in Spanish) works steadily on the AW track and earns several extra points from this scribe when his part-owner David Price describes his HK experience thus far as “ethereal.”

But I know what you’re thinking, who’s this Sir Run Run Shaw character?

A legendary HK figure in the Asian entertainment and television industry, he donated billions to educational institutions in HK and Mainland China and passed away at the ripe old age of 106 in 2014.

What’s Luck got to do with it?

Britain’s leading racing media mogul has some way to go to match the great Sir Run Run – who apparently has 5,000 buildings named in his honour on Chinese college campuses – but the Nick Luck experience is back in town along with a couple of key RTV production players.

Word on the street is that a global edition of ‘Luck On Sunday’ will be filmed from a specially constructed set overlooking the Sha Tin paddock after Sunday’s Champions Day card concludes at around 11am UK time.

But in the meantime, it would be rude for the maestro not to have a few dollars on a sneaky longshot in the last race at Happy Valley tonight.

After all, how often do you touch down in HK on the very same day that LUCK IS BACK steps out at a massive price?

From Glasgow to HK via Melbourne

The absence of British representation in Sunday’s three G1 races worth well over £7m gets no less baffling as time goes on but there is at least one notable UK angle to this week’s big-race build-up.

British expertise remains in demand for high-class horses the world over and Ross Wishart – who rode his sole winner over jumps aboard the Sophie Leech-trained My Skipper in a Uttoxeter handicap hurdle in 2010 – is having a ball aboard star Aussie miler MR BRIGHTSIDE at trackwork this week.

A Glasgow native, Wishart met Ben Hayes – who trains Mr Brightside with his brothers Will and JD - while working for Ali and Sam Stronge near Lambourn and took up the invitation to move to Australia over seven years ago.

“I held a jockeys’ licence in Britain for a few years but my work-life balance at the Hayes base near Melbourne is much better as we finish at eleven every day and then I get to go and play golf,” he says.

“Me and my wife have built a house there – and we’re certainly better off financially than we would be at home.

“I think we are set in Australia for the foreseeable future but the one thing I do miss from home is jumps racing and those big Festivals at Cheltenham and Aintree.”

Looking on the Brightside

Wishart has been part of the Mr Brightside success story through a golden run of nine G1 wins Down Under and feels the ultra-consistent seven-year-old is primed to give local hero VOYAGE BUBBLE a real fight in Sunday’s Champions Mile.

“Mr Brightside has the biggest heart and the biggest will to win you could ever wish for in a horse,” he says.

“I’ve travelled him this week and I’ve ridden him almost less every day since he came to Lindsay Park from New Zealand.

“He’s incredibly laid back and has taken everything in his stride since he arrived in Hong Kong, going straight out onto the track as if he’s at home or at Flemington.

“There’s a bit of rain forecast towards the end of the week, which won’t inconvenience him, and although we take nothing for granted, we think he has a great chance again.”