According to sources, horse owners of the Macau Jockey Club (MJC) have sent an open letter to the Macau SAR Government and the Chief Executive of the Macau SAR, Ho Iat Seng, requesting the MJC compensate them for their losses.
The government announced on 15 January that it had terminated the MJC’s racing concession and that, upon termination this coming April, there would be no horse racing activities in the future. The MJC subsequently held a briefing session with horse owners on 26 January, but the process was far from smooth. The MJC has since promised to introduce a “horse transport subsidy providing up to HK$200,000 to owners who are willing to transport their horses overseas, or HK$30,000 to those transporting their horses to mainland China.
However, owners do not believe this is sufficient to compensate them for their losses. As such, some have started an open group and on 27 February sent an open letter to the government and the Chief Executive. In the letter, it was mentioned that the subsidy would only slightly cover the losses of the owners, who would prefer to send their horses to continue racing overseas.
The letter also mentions that the horse owners had jointly written to the Chief Operating Officer of the MJC, Ben To, the Chairman, Angela Leung On Kae, and five directors on 7 February, urging them to assess the value of each horse fairly and equitably and provide a reasonable amount of compensation.
However, on 21 February, the MJC replied to the owners that “the opinion of the Board of Directors is that no additional compensation can be made.”
The owners replied that they “certainly cannot accept the extremely far-fetched reasons for refusal, the insincere apologies and the disguised blaming of the owners for being so blind as to have invested wrongly in a loss-making business.”
The letter also accuses the MJC of having an ulterior motive to deceive the owners.
“The Jockey Club has gone so far as to continue to persuade horse owners to import horses in April and July 2023. As most of the horses to be imported are only two to three years old, they will need at least half a year’s growth and training before they can take part in the races,” the letter said.
“Therefore, some of the horses to be imported in April 2023 have not yet been able to take part in races, and even for those that can take part in races, they are still at the learning stage, resulting in horse owners having to pay HK$20,000 to HK$30,000 per month for horse maintenance in addition to the cost of purchasing the horses.”
The letter suggests that, as the MJC had suspended its competitions halfway through a racing season, it may not be able to co-organize equestrian events at the 2025 National Games with Guangdong and Hong Kong, as previously planned, which would be detrimental to the revenue of Macau’s tourism industry.
A press conference is due to be held by the owners this Saturday.
