Hong Kong racing......????????

[Half Smoke]

...................


I've watched and bet on several races - not a tremendous lot so far - about 10


what I've noticed:


there have been exactly ZERO scratches - late or early


also, the horses load very quickly even though there are usually 12 per race
never seems to be a problem with a horse not wanting to load


so very different in these respects from U.S. racing




how come?





*

[Nitro]

Originally Posted by Half Smoke

...................


I've watched and bet on several races - not a tremendous lot so far - about 10

what I've noticed:

there have been exactly ZERO scratches - late or early

also, the horses load very quickly even though there are usually 12 per race
never seems to be a problem with a horse not wanting to load

so very different in these respects from U.S. racing


how come?

*

All very true, but you really have to become more familiar with the HK Jockey Club Web site and all that it offers.

There are many other nuances that you'll notice and appreciate after playing there a while.

I've been playing there for about 6 years now and the only drawback I find is the time difference.

It's unfortunate that the racing in the U.S. doesn't follow the HK racing model!

[Parkview_Pirate]

It's my opinion that Hong Kong racing is, BY FAR, the best managed racing venue on Earth. The quality of the racing is top-notch, even though it can be argued the class of the horses is a notch or two below the "top" venues in the world like France, Japan, New York, Kentucky, Great Britain, and South Florida.

It's a very heavily regulated circuit with jockeys, horses, owners and trainers all under extensive scrutiny - and with strict licensing of the humans. There are no race day drugs allowed, thorough vet exams before entries, and each horse is tracked closely for its workouts and general health. Like Nitro suggested, if you wade through the HKJC racing site, you can dig into details like equipment changes and their swimming schedules. Most of the horses are geldings, which also tend to race more reliably (or consistently) than colts, horses, fillies and mares.

It has at least two advantages over American tracks that help make its racing and the general health of the horses tower over North American tracks - strict regulation and....one out of every six residents of Hong Kong is a horse player. They bet a ton of money, and the HKJC pours of ton of the take out back into the management of the facilities (there are two tracks in Hong Kong), and in the management of the whole process. In North America, drug testing is of course a joke (costs money), background checks of owners and trainers is not much better (costs money to do it right), and monitoring of the pools and betting and other factors looking for suspicious activity is well below the standards set by the HKJC.

They load the horses more quickly because they have more gate crew personnel out there (this is done in Japan as well), and are loading two horses at a time. Most American tracks only load one horse at a time (except for Derby).

That's not to say it's perfect, and a lot of players find it too different from American racing to have much success. Handicapping relies less on speed figures, and comes down to pace, bias, trip and post positions - which is not weighed as heavily (IMHO), versus the analysis of PPs in North America. So it takes some time to understand how to approach the analysis of the fields.

There is a ton of money in the pools, but for those whole follow the tote activity, you'll still see some amazing late money flows. Horses whose win odds drop 20% (green) or 50% (red lampers) are highlighted on the odds board online, and much of it shows up in the last 30 seconds.

But it is very nice to have a circuit to play where 12 to 14 horses in the race is the norm, and 1 scratch per week is considered about the average. As for the difference in time zones, I'm a night owl so the Sha Tin day time races (between 11 PM and 3 AM) are not a problem, but catching the night races from Happy Valley (5 AM to 9 AM) is pretty rare for me.

[delfman]

I'm gonna be looking into HK racing! hope it is not similar to aussy racing, as I could not hardly decipher the racing form.
where do you look for racing forms?

[Half Smoke]

Originally Posted by delfman

I'm gonna be looking into HK racing! hope it is not similar to aussy racing, as I could not hardly decipher the racing form.
where do you look for racing forms?

you can get a tremendous amount of info by toggling around in the linked site

there next race day is Saturday late or very early Sunday morning depending on your time zone

they also race at 6:45 a.m. est every Wednesday with the last day of racing being July 17. they then resume in September






https://racing.hkjc.com/racing/infor...g/Entries.aspx



*

[Nitro]

Originally Posted by delfman

I'm gonna be looking into HK racing! hope it is not similar to aussy racing, as I could not hardly decipher the racing form.
where do you look for racing forms?

You can find past performance information on any of these links on the HK Jockey Club Web site.

Form Guide:
https://racing.hkjc.com/racing/speed...rmguide/1.html

Speed Map
https://racing.hkjc.com/racing/speed...edguide/1.html

General PPs
https://racing.hkjc.com/racing/conte...tarter_all.pdf
Note how the date is entered: 20210613. Any date can be entered

[Nitro]

The HK fall 2020 & spring 2021 racing meet will be completed in the next few weeks.
They'll resume racing in Sep 2021.

[biggestal99]

Originally Posted by Half Smoke

...................


I've watched and bet on several races - not a tremendous lot so far - about 10


what I've noticed:


there have been exactly ZERO scratches - late or early


also, the horses load very quickly even though there are usually 12 per race
never seems to be a problem with a horse not wanting to load


so very different in these respects from U.S. racing




how come?





*

Old grizzled geldings. No high strung colts need apply.

Very easy to load geldings.

On the scratch front. Limited amount of races.

Allan

[biggestal99]

Almost all the races are handicaps. So the Hong Kong handicapper got know the shit. And the handicaps are classed from class 1 (best) to class 6 (worst) so even the slow horses have a chance to money.

They have turf and all weather tracks.

Allan

[delfman]

as interested as I am in playing hong kong racing, i will wait for DRF pp's if that ever happens. I see that DRF does some European cards nowadays. but does anyone know? is this just for very limited occasions? like epsom derby day and such?

[Nitro]

Originally Posted by delfman

as interested as I am in playing hong kong racing, i will wait for DRF pp's if that ever happens. I see that DRF does some European cards nowadays. but does anyone know? is this just for very limited occasions? like epsom derby day and such?

Don't hold your breath!
Besides the HK Jockey Club offers a wealth of information far beyond what the DRF or Equibase ever dreamed about.
You won't be able to appreciate that until you actually visit their site and review all of the available links.
GL

[affirmedny]

Originally Posted by delfman

as interested as I am in playing hong kong racing, i will wait for DRF pp's if that ever happens. I see that DRF does some European cards nowadays. but does anyone know? is this just for very limited occasions? like epsom derby day and such?

DRF offers free pps for HK https://www.drf.com/hong-kong-jockey-club

[Onesome]

would suggest the hkjc, racingpost or racing and sports pps over drf.

[delfman]

Originally Posted by Onesome

would suggest the hkjc, racingpost or racing and sports pps over drf.

you may be right but it's a case of "can't teach an old dog, new tricks"
I've been using only drf pp's(for 35 yrs) and am very accustomed to them.

[delfman]

Originally Posted by affirmedny

DRF offers free pps for HK https://www.drf.com/hong-kong-jockey-club

thank you very much!
alas they aren't drf pp's though, they are more like handicapping from a program. not a racing form