CHAMPIONS DAY CAN GO FROM ‘STRENGTH TO STRENGTH’ FOLLOWING POST-PANDEMIC REBUILD

Punters wager north of HK$1.55 billion on Sunday despite wet conditions, with Jockey Club chief Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges determined to grow the marquee meeting

Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges believes FWD Champions Day can go from "strength to strength" after hailing Sunday's event a success following a post-pandemic rebuild.

While admitting Champions Day will always play second fiddle to the Hong Kong International Races, Engelbrecht-Bresges has high hopes for a meeting that was restricted solely to local horses in 2020 and 2022 because of Covid restrictions.

"It will always be different to HKIR, but it is another key international anchor," he said, confirming the Group One Champions Mile will receive a HK$2 million prize-money injection, lifting it to HK$24 million.

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"We are determined to develop this race meeting even further because we had to relaunch it after the pandemic.

"We can create a little bit more excitement with prize money and we can promote it more across the world. I am convinced it can go from strength to strength."

While Sunday's crowd was down by more than 20,000, officials were still pleased to see 32,171 people tick through the Sha Tin turnstiles despite persistent early rain.

The quick-draining Sha Tin surface was reduced to yielding after over 250mm of rain throughout the week, but punters still wagered north of HK$1.55 billion - just 0.29 per cent down year on year.

"Our team did an extraordinary job with this kind of weather to have ground which was extremely fair and enabled all horses to participate," Engelbrecht-Bresges said.

"We had over 34,000 people [between Sha Tin and Happy Valley], which is an amazing achievement considering the weather, and with this weather, when you have soft going it's normally a 5 to 6 per cent decrease in turnover.

"Local turnover was down by around 6 per cent but for overseas turnover, we had a near-record HK$400 million.

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"We also had the highest number of mainland visitors to come to the track, which was over 5,100 visitors who came here to enjoy horse racing."

Hong Kong swept the afternoon's three Group One races thanks to Invincible Sage, Beauty Eternal and Romantic Warrior, with seven of the 11 overseas raiders failing to beat a Hong Kong runner home.

"The strength of our horses sometimes makes it a bit difficult to attract those from overseas, but I firmly believe that if people see more and more that is Hong Kong is back to normal after Covid, they will come," Engelbrecht-Bresges said.