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'The main condition is we get the right quality, it doesn't matter if we lose some money' - Engelbrecht-Bresges

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At last year's values, they are worth almost $41 million. Thirty-nine choicely-bred young horses purchased by the Hong Kong Jockey Club from the world's leading yearling auctions to be re-offered at its Piaget International Sale next Friday. In the hothouse atmosphere of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, those values could soar to as much as $80 million judged on results at last year's fifth edition of the sale, which finally came of age in spectacular fashion as millions were gambled on racecourse success in a matter of minutes.

But that was then, this is now. In the post-September 11 financial world, nothing can be taken for granted and Hong Kong's jittery economy has caused a downsizing in Jockey Club expectations. Now the talk is of breaking even on those 2000 values, a far cry from that heady December night of a year ago.

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the Club's director of racing, now says that last year's sale was not such a good result for the Club - even with a profit of $15-$20 million on the 23 horses sold. As exciting as it was, he says, profit is not the point of the sale.

'When the average price jumped to $2.1 million last year, it looked great, but it was not a healthy improvement,' he says. 'The money is not the most important factor - OK, it would be nice if we would break even, but we don't want to have more. The sale is part of our overall policy of getting higher-quality horses to race in Hong Kong and, if the main condition is that we get the right quality, it doesn't matter if we lose some money because we will benefit in the long term. Better horses equals better turnover and better sport, and that's what we're looking for.'

Engelbrecht-Bresges also points out that the Club is selling to its own members, which weakens the profit motive attached to other commercial thoroughbred auctions. 'Even if we subsidise the sale, it is our members we are providing horses for, so this is money spent for our core business,' he says.

'We think the quality of our racing comes first, especially in the long term. We had the feeling last year that it was too much money and that's one of the reasons why we expanded the number of horses this year. We wanted to buy in different price ranges to give the owners who don't want to spend more than $1 million the option to buy a horse for maybe $400,000 or $600,000.

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