BEWARE THE AI AND CHANGE THE LANGUAGE OF RACING: CANDO?
Personally speaking, I am tired of all these conversations about AI, the Crypto market and loathe the word “turnover” just as much as I dislike the term known as “the punt”.
We’re talking about horses for courses here, and while in the city and reading about a decline in, er, turnover after the first few meetings of the new racing season, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which is a charitable organisation, needs to actually be SEEN as being one- not through a press release, but through action.
The HKJC should seriously look at inspiring its members and possible new members in INVESTING in Hong Kong.
This means believing in the city, and what I call the CanDo Effect.
An article this week in the SCMP saying that the CEO of the HKJC was “bemoaning” the decline in turnover of the first few meetings
said much about the state of Hong Kong racing and that of the city once described as “Asia’s world city”- and though it wasn’t, WHAT IF this quote was AI generated and what are the plans in place by the HKJC to avoid a situation like this happening?
Whoever wrote this article was quoting my “nearly fine” German friend- Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges- verbatim about the Club going to conduct an “investigation” to determine the reasons for this sad state of affairs. This also made me blurt out laughing- partly nervously.
It was Winfried being Winfried and how he often appears to believe that the entire world stops for horse racing and “Zis plague veel be eradicated”. I often see the role of Winfried played in a movie by Peter Sellers as Dr Strangelove.
Turnover yesterday at the pomp and circumstance of the National Day meeting said pretty much everything except that turnover was up only “marginally” while others chose not to go where fools rush in and kept clear of this subject and quite a slide in attendance figures.
Though highly intelligent and with a very good sense of humour, I sometimes believe that Winfried lives in a cocoon with his better half, and appears to close himself down about the global economy, expansion plans of CITIBET who’s no longer only in the Philippines, climate change, AI, the crypto community, the ongoing wars, and, well, how the Champagne Bar at the Grand Hyatt Hotel ran out of oysters last night.
The drama at the Champagne bar was before 9pm and after I had ordered a dozen fresh oysters for our table, one of three at what once was one of Hong Kong’s favourite meeting places. No more oysters in the entire 5 star hotel.
The Champagne Bar also no longer serve Oysters Kilpatrick and hummus is not included in the “new menu”.
So, you see, Winfried, like Jesus, we all have our crosses to bear and a need to keep one’s guard up.
A downturn in betting turnover on racing can of course be largely attributed to people not having the financial resources to be cavalier and bet a few million dollars through the HKJC totalisator.
It happens, Winfried, especially in a gambling driven pastime where horses race for the enjoyment of humans baying for their picks to win them money.
Having learned much about horse racing from the twelve years working with Winfried and when I created and managed the Happy Wednesday brand, I did suggest many times that the HKJC should work on being a more likeable product.
Like style, likability cannot be bought. Those of us who have been around the block and in other industries like the music industry can spot “fake” from miles away. And though we don’t like to play or be around fake anything, AI has taken over. This is where CanDo comes in.
What Winfried is “bemoaning” about, perhaps needs a Less Is More strategy- but definitely more CanDo than what’s on the menu of the Champagne bar these days.
All those exotic betting types being offered! How much revenue do they bring in? And does one really think that “Wednesday is the new Friday?”
More importantly, is the current racing product technology driven and attracting la crème de la crème with strong ideas?
Does the World Pool or whirlpool or fixed odds and having an extra race and a glut of simulcasts help anything when the bottom line is that money is too tight to mention?
Hong Kong racing is also looking rather tacky. I remember Winfried taking me on a tour of the new Clubhouse after one of our dinner dates, and being shown the rather splendiferous Eighth, one entire floor with upmarket everything and with me wondering who were going to be its “frequent flyers”?
Hong Kong is not a tale of two cities- at least not today.
Quite frankly, as a travel destination, compared to going out in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong look like a documentary on the feeding habits of tsetse flies.
Hong Kong definitely needs to return to its Can Do spirit.
When known as the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, my dear mother was private secretary to Sir Gordon MacWhinnie, head of Peat Marwick and Mitchell and then also Chairman of the Club.
https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/asia-travel/hong-kong/sir-gordon-macwhinnie-9chnks98s76
I remember how proud she was to be working for him and having five bucks on Icarus every time this horse he owned ran.
This pride in being even associated with someone who was a member of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, let alone its Chairman, is something I will always remember. I remember it for the joy it gave my mother and also how this was a very different and CanDo driven Hong Kong.
This was a Hong Kong straight out the pages of “Noble House” and “Taipan”, both written by James Clavell and turned into television miniseries starring a young Pierce Brosnan.
I have been in Hong Kong a long time and remember long lunches at Jimmy’s Kitchen, Chesa and nights out at Club Volvo with its gold Rolls Royce before forced to change its name and became Club BBoss.
The HK$45 million question for Winfried is creating a CanDo Hong Kong Jockey Club for these times and really knowing today’s horse racing market and how many will appreciate the multi billion dollar Conghua Training Centre despite it having no legalised betting on the horse racing- and take this further.
As those who know me in the real world, the reason I go back to watching the brilliant “Mad Men” television series is to remind me how much I owe advertising for teaching me about communications and knowing what great advertising is.
I also learn something about myself from watching the life changers of character Don Draper.
He’s certainly not without his flaws and is a serial womaniser. So was I and it took me around five years of therapy to outrun the hounds of hell and come to understand love as opposed to quick fix neediness. I also learned about the importance of nostalgia when selling a product and the importance of giving back.
This is where I believe that Winfried showing his more caring side, the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club can almost rewrite and “rearrange” the language of horse racing- and even more importantly, inspire the city.
While all this has been going on, very separately, I have been speaking to a longtime friend in entertainment marketing about CanDo being a collective rallying call for a city like Hong Kong to move forward in positive ways and to always keep it real.
I believe that We CanDo can change negativity by having very different individuals come together to create something new and full of possibilities and positivity. It will be extremely boring if we were all alike.
Meanwhile, I’m certainly no expert in running a racing club, but knowing marketing, and the importance in a CEO having an emotional investment in horse racing can go a long ways in bringing new people and ideas not even thought about before to the table.
There’s always a need to step outside comfort zones and corporate speak to get the CanDo results needed.
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