Could we be seeing the early signs of something terminal for Saturday racing in Hong Kong? Officials were not unhappy with last weekend's 4.65 per cent turnover drop, citing the day of the week as the primary offender, in much the same style of early warning that hinted at the demise of Happy Valley day races. According to the club's own research and estimates, a Saturday race meeting is worth a discount of anywhere from $30-40 million in betting turnover. So a Saturday which is minus four per cent, could well have been a Sunday with a break-even bottom line. Though, by a quick thumb-through of last year's meeting number 17, we note it was also a Saturday so we are comparing apples with apples, albeit larger ones. Lucky it wasn't a Sunday meeting last year or we would have doubled the turnover drop. That meeting also featured the Panasonic Cup, which seems to have been downgraded in the couple of seasons from the days when it was contested by Electronic Unicorn and All Thrills Too. Though the proximity of the 1,200m Premier race the week before may have something to do with that and led to neither race having a full field at declaration time.
