End of an era as horse racing in Macau terminates
For three decades, Joe Lau has tied his racehorse training career to the rising and falling fortunes of the Macau Jockey Club but, in a few days, it will all be over.
Next Monday, horse racing in the southern Chinese casino hub will be consigned to history after the club’s concession from the government to operate racing was terminated.
The sport was in financial difficulties and no longer able to meet the “current development needs of society”, said a government statement in January.
Speaking outside the ageing racecourse, with glitzy casino resorts towering in the distance, Lau recalled the glory days, such as his sweep at the 2004 Hong Kong-Macau Interport Series, but he now feels “depressed” about the end of an era.
“It’s like you felt the whole house on fire and it shouldn’t happen this way,” he said.
“Riding is in my blood and this is my occupation.”
Macau held its first thoroughbred races in 1989, when still under Portuguese rule, and the sport found success after a takeover in 1991 by Stanley Ho, the late casino tycoon, nicknamed “King of Gambling”.
But the Macau Jockey Club, chaired by Ho’s fourth wife An
gela Leong, has seen attendances fall and losses exceeding 2.5 billion patacas (about R5.9 billion).
“In the late 1990s we were flying, we had 1 200 horses,” said Geoff Allendorf, a long-time trainer in the city, which lies an hour to the west of Hong Kong by ferry.
“At the present time we’ve got 200. That says a story in itself.”
Despite the warning signs, some trainers and owners said they were taken aback by the 11week window between January’s closure announcement and the end of racing, with Allendorf calling the timing “abrupt”.
Trainers, jockeys and stable staff have written to Macau’s leader demanding compensation for
their lost livelihoods, saying the club’s 570 employees would be dealt a heavy blow.
“Everybody’s still in shock. It’ll really hit home once we close down,” Allendorf said.
There is concern for the welfare of horses. Owners are negotiating with club management over costs of transportation and relocation, which must be completed before April 2025.
The Macau Jockey Club’s chief operations officer, Ben To, would not comment on that, but conceded there were “still many things under discussion with the government and other parties”.
Owner Jason Tam has a stable of six in Macau and is leading a group of owners seeking compensation from the Jockey Club.
“This place is falling apart, this is what happens with poor management,” he said, motioning at the peeling paint at the 400 000m2 track.
Hit hard by the pandemic and economic uncertainties, horse racing has faced a downturn in parts of Asia, with Singapore announcing last year that 180 years of racing will end in October.
But Tam points to the soaring success of nearby Hong Kong, where racing saw an all-time high turnover of $39 billion (about R740 billion) in 2022-23.
Six years ago, Macau’s racing licence was extended by 24 years in return for $190 million of investment by the Macau Jockey Club on renovations and non-gaming facilities, such as hotels.
The investment never materialised, according to trainers and owners. In January the 2018 deal was terminated.
One of the last Sunday meetings, on 17 March, drew only about 300 spectators. –