By Total Performance Data CEO - Will Duff Gordon
Life post the Sapporo edition of the 40th Asian Racing Conference is distinctly average. How I miss the Japanese hospitality, food, culture and attention to detail. This was another ARC event that was meticulously planned and expertly delivered below the humid and tree covered mountains of Hokkaido’s largest city and home to the Japanese breeding industry. Thank you Winifried, the HKJC and the JRA team.
Who knew that Japan contains the best of all Beatles tribute bands? The boys from The Parrots belted out Twist And Shout and other songs at the closing dinner and then again after racing the next day with the most incredibly authenticity.
It’s dangerous to express some high level observations when I didn’t attend very many panel sessions due to the 25 sales pitches that I made with my colleague John Mcbroom during the week!
Different city, same discussions
A quick re-read of my blog post the 2023 Melbourne ARC shows that too little has changed. “A fair summary would be that all racing nations look to each other for inspiration. This is not to pour cold water over the incredibly challenging pressures but to say that no racing nation is at peace!….No one is safe from the panic about the twin and polar opposite challenges of retaining current fans and grabbing new ones. Aside from top level football (soccer), nothing has a divine right to eyeballs.” There remains too much discussion of the problems and not enough about the solutions.
Japanese Racing
The 2 year old Group 3 race at Sapporo last Saturday was worth £300k. In the UK, this might be £75k at a push. Japan is breeding some seriously tough horses and I can’t wait to see Forever Young line up in the Breeders Cup Classic alongside City of Troy and the other super stars. But you simply can’t compare or import lessons from a very closed and tightly controlled Government and betting monopoly in contrast to other jurisdictions.
World Pool
An area where we have seen material progress, and one that echoes the conference strap line of, ‘be connected, stride together’, is the growth in World Pool-hosted races since February 2023. There are now nearly 50 showcase racedays from around the world that Hong Kong’s race-loving public can bet on. This has been hugely successful and if we (TPD) can help (HKJC) to tie together the global form and speed data this can continue to grow and shows what’s possible when we work together.
The rise of the middle eastern racing scene
Dubai hosts a World Pool race and this event saw a huge increase in exposure for what’s happening in the middle east. H.E Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi showcased the rapid increase in UAE racing following on from which Tom Ryan discussed Saudi Arabia’s year-round program with 2 tracks and the plans for their 3rd racetrack next to a new $500n F1 facility at Qiddiya. TPD are omnipresent at these incredible racetracks with more to come very soon!
Riyadh in Saudia Arabia will host ARC 41 and by then there will be hundreds more races on that continent with millions more in prize money and, I’d wager, at least a few new racetracks. Who loses?
Gamification, Japanese style
A gentleman from the Mitsubishi consulting division reminded us of the crazy success of Japan’s marriage of cartoon characters with famous horses. Masses of young Japanese people have started their racing journey through this fusion of popular and digital culture.
It’s interesting that there was no discussion of NFT, the metaverse or the possibilities to make crypto betting a positive for the sport. It seems that efforts in that area are mixed with Zed.Run going well but Silks.io having ceased their NFT horse owning experiment.
It’s essential that tools like Twitch, You Tube Live, Web 3 and crypto are harnessed to grab younger bettors since the engine room of the World Pool are punters that would ideally be younger.
Black Market
This threat is an old one in Asia but a new one in the UK due to the new frictions imposed on punters by the authorities to slow down online betting (when it should actually focus on slowing online casino’s and not sports betting). I hear work is under way to try and license some big grey market operators in Europe and that must be the way to go when shutting them down is a game of whack a mole according to Ronan O’Laoire, the anti-corruption-on-sport cszar.
Quick: buy a fast horse
Amidst plenty of doom and gloom, did you know that New Zealand hosts a $3.5m race for 3 year olds every March! If you have a 90+ rated horse the world is, quite literally, your oyster. $3m in Jan in Florida. $10m in Dubai in March. $20m in Feb in Saudi. New race series springing up everywhere as nations compete to host the top equine talent. Win and you’re in! And so it should be! Horse prices at auctions at the middle end are predicted to be modest and prize money, globally at least, is booming. Buy a good horse and come racing.
