FROM SIMULCASTS INTO CREATING STIMULCASTS!
- Hans Ebert
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
It’s really about making some sense of it all at a time when not too much is making sense and also giving people food for thought and how to have this thing called fun.
Personally speaking, I really believe that we’ve forgotten how to have fun and fun has become a funk, but without the chirpiness of “Funky Town”.
It’s certainly not going to be easy, but if things are too easy, there’s no challenge, which is why I want to at least try and make horse racing- and the world of horses- TikTok boom boom fun.
If there’s an idea here, it came when watching the simulcasts during the Hong Kong off season of the races from Royal Ascot and Deauville.
Even before the racing started, my peeps and I were drawn to the people at the races- well dressed people, happy people and some really entertaining and fun looking individuals actually IN the racing game.
Of course, humour is in the funny bone of the individual, and I find that a personality like Matt Chapman brings so much to the table of horse racing.
He has a “feel good” quality, and so does the outgoing fun of Saffie Osborne, the youthful exuberance of Billy Loughnane and, believe it or not, the stoic mischievousness of Ryan Moore mixed in with the all-business Irish personality and “tank youse” of Aidan O’Brien.
When this genius of a trainer starts his roll call of “tanking” his entire Ballydoyle team, he makes a Craig Williams come across like a wallflower.
Small things like this add more than what many think (tink?) to those on course, those watching from home, the media, potential sponsors and those on the outside and looking in and seeing if this game has anything going that’s for them.
For myself, these simulcasts with the World Pool operating at full throttle might not be for your typical Hong Kong horse racing fan, who’s usually still caught up between the moon and New York City and submerged in the nostalgia of racing in the city before the turn of the century, but these races from all around the world really could be their link to seeing how different people enjoy their horse racing- and life.
It would be a bloody boring birdie num num world if one size fit all.
I remember when Hong Kong and Hong Kong racing was always always always about being international. After all, Hong Kong was branded as “Asia’s world city”.
Some of us still remember those fabulous Hong Kong Hilton race days hosted by General Manager James Smith, and also never missing the International Races and always having a wager on the Quartet. We actually won it once.
The whole day was planned weeks in advance- first, the races at Shatin, then dinner at Niccolini’s at the Conrad Hotel followed by karaoke and bottles of Martell Cordon Bleu at Club BBoss and usually meeting up with others and another party starting up at around 3am with a different party crowd.
Though those days are gone because people make any city come alive, and most of those party people are no longer in Hong Kong anymore, what I want and hope to do is something interactive and fun and available online and built around every race day in Hong Kong- but offering more.
These will take on a personality of their own in different venues throughout the city and with a constantly changing cast of characters.
Of course, the Hong Kong Jockey Club and its broadcast team will do whatever they want, but it’s always good when audiences have an option.
What I see is an ongoing series built around three rookie racing fans given a budget of HK$8888- it’s a lucky number in Chinese superstition- and see who fares best with their wagering strategies during this upcoming Hong Kong racing season.
This is the core idea, but with plenty of room to roam and manoeuvre and market the city, include cameo appearances, and ways to make those simulcasts forge a more FUN and greater infotainment and edutainment link with the regular Hong Kong racing.
It’s also about things like asking people who they would take to the races. Easy for me: Jessie Buckley, Conan O’Brien and Mayor Mamdani.
For King Ka Ying Zac Purton: Tiger Woods, Tom Brady and the great Michael Jordan.
These simulcasts of overseas race meetings are still something new to horse racing, and which can be a very powerful marketing and promotional tool.
In many ways, these simulcasts are still in their infancy and something of an afterthought as to how they can be married with the racing in Hong Kong in ways that is not more boxy thinking.
It’s not only myself that sees this, but so does someone else very much in the forefront of entertainment marketing on a global level of everything from fashion and music to merchandise and a “house without a roof”.
They also see this product and content as something that can NOT only bring the different racing worlds, but spread into different business streams and attract different audiences, locally, regionally and globally.
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