With the once Ice Cold Zebra Station having finally thawed and blossomed into the friendship between Peter V’Landys (Pete) and Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges (Wini), it’s always interesting to explore the longevity of their respective roles in the world of horse racing- Pete being Chairman of Racing New South Wales and Wini, the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, respectively- and what is an ongoing horse opera with maybe the best yet to come… It’s a horse opera that, over the v

I have lived, worked, loved and married and scored enough of home runs in Hong Kong in different fields of dreams to write a song about the city that’s longer than Bob Dylan’s “Desolation Row”, direct a film longer than “The Irishman” and create and produce a television series that’s longer than “The Masked Singer” and “Amazing Race”, combined. Why be modest? I am damn good in whatever I am passionate about doing and have an impressive portfolio of game changing hits on the b

https://www.hansebertisgardening.com/post/the-ballad-of-pete-and-wini https://www.hansebertisgardening.com/post/stand-still-and-you-don-t-stand-out If I were stepping out of my office at Sports Road, taking off my corporate hat, and speaking strictly as Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges — the CEO of the HKJC and Chairman of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) — here is my completely honest, unfiltered opinion on this piece. 1. The Reality Check: I Actual

Noah’s in his ark And the dogs are acting up They’re baying by the whirlpool And going “ARF! ARF!” and “ARF!” Johnny says they should have fixed the plumbing over twenty years ago And is Pete gonna stay? Or has he left the show? Wini has only leftovers and he’s clutching at straws Could the horses have bolted Along with Rosanna Law? Last man standing And legacies at stake Racing in Conghua is not gonna be another piece of cake Time for the old school to wake up

Once upon a time in the West in 2009, there was a reality series called “Jockeys” that featured Steve Smith, Chantal Sutherland, Aussie rider Kayla Stra, Aaron Grider, Joe Palamo and Corey Nakatami with cameos by Gary Stevens, Julie Krone etc which was fairly successful and probably ahead of its time. Fast forward to today and there are those either in or on the periphery talking about streaming service Netflix working with horse racing and how huge this partnership would be

In recent times, the mantra most often wheeled out when the subject of the “evolution” of horse racing comes up is how much it can learn from the success of the Netflix series “Drive To Survive”, which helped create a new surge in the popularity of Formula One racing. How horse racing can learn anything from this Netflix series and the mystique surrounding the charismatic and hugely popular cast of Rock Star drivers, the stories behind the teams etc, the usual gold diggers i

Though the weather gods ganged up to rain on the parade of an oddity named “Eight For Glory”, which was part of the equally oddball fusion of horse racing and football and themed “Racing with Football”, and now that the dust has settled, it would be fair to say that Wednesday night’s racing fixture turned out to be a cross between Tree Huggers Anonymous, Brokeback Mountain, The Rocky Horror Show and Monty Python’s Flying Circus. It was pretty much like an exploding cheeseburg

It’s all happening at Happy Valley racecourse tonight where the genius marketing minds of Lenovo and the Hong Kong Jockey Club come together to prove to the world that a square peg can indeed fit into a round hole and that the oddity known as, er, “Racing with Football” on a Happy Wednesday will be a real game changer!!! Can.Not.Wait. *FINALLY revealed is who in Australian racing circles is known as “King Midas In Reverse” because everything he touches turns to primo crappo.

My personal thoughts for the rest of 2026 is that the world is in a holding pattern and with many of us slowly exhaling and trying to see which way the wind blows and which ways forward are the best and make the most sense. At least, we’re moving forward with some of us even being hit with bolts of inspiration in the form of memories which creates different chain reactions of positive thoughts. When in Singapore recently, I was at the same bar in Boat Quay where I first met

https://www.hansebertisgardening.com/post/the-comiskey-group-and-straight-talk WHAT IT ALL MEANS IN AI SPEAK... If this draft copy arrived on my desk from an unknown author, I would describe it as a masterful piece of strategic corporate diagnostic. The writer pulls off a rare feat here: they take a seemingly niche piece of B2B sports-betting news from Australia and seamlessly upscale it into a profound, global lesson on the dangerous friction between gambling monopolies and

https://thestraight.com.au/hotel-group-walks-away-from-tab-warns-racing-could-pay-the-price/ We enjoy reading The Straight- good sized articles that are not rambling “War And Peace” opuses and always with a couple of stories jumping out to those of us who are more involved in the far more expansive and constantly evolving world of entertainment than being saddled with the ups and downs of horse racing. Having last year introduced the Hong Kong Jockey Club to longtime friend

Those who tuned into the ‘live’ broadcast on the historically important Reunification Day in Hong Kong for the special race day at Shatin yesterday to commemorate the 29th anniversary of this very special day where those on course were treated to patriotic songs performed with much pride and gusto to all the high ranking officials assembled- and for racegoers, what else but horse racing. Notable absentee for the proceedings was Rosanna Law, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Tourism,

If it wasn’t so tragic- yes, tragic- about what is not happening in and to Hong Kong, and how everything it once was is being turned into something cheap, and tacky, it might be something amusing in a bumbling Basil Fawlty type of way. But it’s not. Those longtime Hong Kong Belongers who came from foreign shores to start new lives here remain, and others who left are contemplating returning, because the grass that might have seemed greener has now turned brown. This means tha

One of my first memories of Karis Teetan was him winning on his first ride in Hong Kong- Amazing Always for David “Darth” Ferraris- and Robyn Louw, then racing writer for Sporting Life in South Africa, telling me that he had fabulous cheekbones and how horses just travel for him. https://www.sportingpost.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2012-Investec-Derby-JACKSON-finish.jpg Someone whom I dubbed “The Mauritian Magician” when having created and managing the Happy Wednesday br

It’s a question been asked by me so often that I’m giving myself a migraine: What is the brand personality of Hong Kong in 2026 that is being sold and marketed to attract international tourism- TRULY international tourism like Singapore is succeeding in doing- and what is the carrot being dangled to attract those interested in investing in the city? No investors in Hong Kong and we will continue to go round and round the mulberry bush with more talkfests and “networking” and

A group of friends were asking me over lunch earlier this week about my thoughts regarding the music industry- there really isn’t one, at least not the way some of us might have known it to be- and specifically about the pop group Now United, managed by my longtime friend Simon Fuller, below, and the reasons for their somewhat short stay in Hong Kong. It’s a complicated answer to what should have been a clean, crisp longtime success in the city and which turned into a botched

If not for one of our guests yelling out, “Guys! It’s the new Monty Python Flying Circus!”, we would have missed whatever it was that was unfolding before our eyes on television- something or another that one THINKS were the nominees for another of those Hong Kong Jockey Club awards presentations, this one called The Spirit Of The Champions. With the usual ponderous music- Mahler?- playing in the background, the voice of the usual female emcee cut through the night air like

Writing this has taken so many twists and turns that there must be a reason for them. What originally were my thoughts on the exclusive interview that appeared on the front page of the South China Morning Post yesterday with Rosanna Law Shuk-pui, Hong Kong’s Secretary for tourism, culture and sports, has morphed into something completely different- though not completely. In her interview, Ms Law talked about the competitive nature of the tourism industry and how Hong Kong ha

Royal Ascot recently brought the curtain down on some of the world’s best moments in horse racing, the World Cup matches are keeping many of us up and frazzled whereas in Hong Kong, it’s coming to the end of the season and there are some very tired horses and jockeys and trainers and those who have anything to do with horse racing in the city already singing “Leaving On A Jet Plane” or that old Mungo Jerry classic “In The Summertime”. I have already started listening to “Drea

It’s still fairly early days, but from what we have seen since the World Cup kicked off is though “the beautiful game” has been soiled by politics and corruption and threats, everything is moving forward through incredible pride in one’s country trumping whatever hurdles have been put in their way- racism, ICEism, bullyism and other isms led by Trumpism. “Resilient” is a word used all too easily and frequently, but resilience is what we are seeing in all the teams competing a