Hong Kong Jockey Club has announced a new record for racing turnover of HK$124.82 billion from the 2018-19 season, which came to a close on Sunday.
The impressive result comes after a challenging season in which attendance and turnover fell dramatically mid-season before surging late including a record single day turnover of HK$1.97 billion on the final day – pushing season turnover up 0.4% year-on-year.
Helping the cause was a 13.5% increase in commingling to HK$18.82 billion which offset a 1.6% decline in turnover from locals to HK$106.0 billion.
“In the economic circumstances we are very satisfied with this result. It has been a challenging year with a lot of ups and downs,” said HKJC CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges. “If one looks at our total attendance, we were at 2.21 million customers, which is up by 3.3%.
“It was one of the best season finales we have ever had. We had more than 51,000 people on track, which is the biggest since 2012.”
The annual tax contribution paid to the government for the year came in at HK$13.0 billion, down 0.6% from 2018.
The Jockeys Championship was won by Zac Parton with 168 wins, narrowly missing Joao Moreira’s record of 170. Moreira was second with 90 wins.
John Size claimed the trainers’ title with 78 wins ahead of John Moore with 75 and Frankie Lor with 65.