Macau Horse Racing Enters Its Final Furlong 'still In Shock'

Macau, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Mar, 2024) 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.

On April 1, 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," Lau told AFP.

"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".

In recent years, the Macau Jockey Club -- chaired by Ho's fourth wife Angela Leong -- saw attendances fall and racked up losses exceeding 2.5 billion patacas ($310 million).