Record-breaking turnover in 2017
The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s new Conghua Racecourse has opened in China’s Guangdong Province. The HK$3.7 billion (US$47 million) facility, which will serve as a satellite for the club’s operations in Hong Kong. No racing or gambling is yet open to the public, according to the South China Morning Post.
Mainland government officials were among the 500 guests at the grand opening on August 28. Chen Jianhua, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Guangzhou Municipal People’s Congress, said, “China’s largest world-class horse sport training center is now rising in front of us. Conghua Racecourse lays a solid foundation for horse racing cooperation between Guangzhou and Hong Kong, opens things up for the imagination and presents a promising prospect for development.”
Chen said the facility was a “bond connecting the two sides, a bridge reaching the world and a benchmark for Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation.”
Jockey Club Chairman Simon Ip Sik-on said the club “has great potential to support the development of an equine industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, and in the mainland as a whole.
“We have established the first world-class racecourse and thoroughbred training center in the mainland,” he continued. “The Hong Kong Jockey Club is a world leader in the sport of horse racing and home to some of the world’s top racehorses. Conghua Racecourse will enable us to elevate our racing to an even higher level of excellence.”
The Jockey Club enjoyed a banner year in 2017, with turnover up 8.1 percent to a record high of HK$234 billion (US$29.8 billion), according to its annual report cited by the Post. The club paid the government HK$22.6 billion in duty and profits tax, up about 4 percent.
At the club’s annual general meeting in August, Anthony Chow Wing-kin was elected chairman and Lester Kwok Chi-hang as deputy chairman for the coming year, and Ip retired from the board after 19 years. Chow said the club’s objective “is quite clear: to keep on developing the club’s performance across every aspect of its business model, so that we can continue providing the best possible support to the community.”
