Record Turnover HK

[VC!]

A total of HK$1.71 billion (A$319m) was wagered across the 10-race card, the highest for any International raceday in Hong Kong. 

“We are more than delighted about the turnover. We could not have expected turnover like we had,” Hong Kong Jockey Club CEO Engelbrecht-Bresges said in a statement.

“The interesting part is that the local turnover, even though we had to close down some of our Off-Course Betting Branches, was above last year at HK$1.376 billion (A$257m).

"The major growth seen came from commingling turnover, which has been amazing. This shows that our strategy of globalistion, of making Hong Kong racing – with our integrity, with all the excitement, with the deep liquidity in our pool – available to the world, is working.

“The commingling turnover was HK$334 million (A$62.4m), which is up by nearly 30 per cent from HK$258 million (A$48.2m) last year."

Attendance at Sha Tin was substantially down to 27,965 as many potential on-course patrons opting to stay home with protests planned for Sunday across Hong Kong. 

“We deliberately were not pushing our attendance. We wanted to be absolutely sure that everybody who came to the races would be able to go home safely because we knew there was a big demonstration on the island and we didn't want to take a risk. We had a lot of in-depth planning for this meeting.

“For us to be able to stage this international event when all other major sporting events here have been cancelled, we have demonstrated that we manage what we do extremely professionally, with a real risk assessment.”
 

Australia is planning a National Tote for late 2020 
I myself think this is the way to go, many don’t 

I have heard how the punter will lose the best of 3 totes option, my reply to this is how do you get the BOB if you’re a winning punter and are banned by every corporate 

Very few options are available to winning punters

Hong Kong with such a powerful tote, you can bet into a tote of such magnitude and not expect great fluctuations on the tote so you can still take value not betting fixed odds

When Australia go National they really need to advertise heavily and push this option with all they’ve got

What a stunning win from Glory Vase

Magic Wand was good Moore just had trouble securing a clear passage momentum is so crucial 

[mardigras]

When NZ opted for commingling, they should have steered away from fixed odds. I think a single tote in Australia makes a lot of sense. A single tote covering NZ and Oz will do very little for NZ - as it will only ensure Australian pools are more attractive, and NZ pools will languish - making the transition to betting elsewhere even more compelling.

It is the problem with a jurisdiction merging pools with a far stronger racing jurisdiction. Especially if you are then dictated to as to what racing you make available locally.