ENG-2018 — Page 374

Hong Kong Year Books 香港年報 All

20

Recreation, Sport, Culture and the Arts

One/Grade One Races for 2018, with seven being in the top 50. Hong Kong also had 25 horses in the World's Best Racehorse Rankings for 2018, including the joint best miler globally. This was achieved despite Hong Kong having just 0.6 per cent of the world's horse races and 0.7 per cent of its thoroughbred racehorses. Indeed, in 2018, for the first time, Hong Kong horses won all four of the Hong Kong International Races.

The quality of Hong Kong racing and racecourse entertainment makes it the territory's most popular spectator sport, attracting an attendance of 2.1 million in 2017-18. It is also developing a global fan base, with commingled wagering contributing significantly to racing turnover.

In August, Hong Kong racing entered a new era with the opening of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Conghua Racecourse in Guangzhou. Providing state-of-the-art training and horse care, Conghua is an essential platform in further developing Hong Kong's world-class racing. Its location in the Mainland's only large-scale, internationally recognised equine disease-free zone, coupled with professional training provided to Mainland employees, also enables Conghua to support the development of the equine industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The club is authorised by the government to provide responsible horse racing and football wagering services and to operate the Mark Six lottery. In doing so it helps meet public demand for betting and assists the government in combating illegal gambling. The club holds the highest Level 4 accreditation under the World Lottery Organisation's Responsible Gambling Framework.

In addition to its tax contribution, the club supports the community through its charities trust. The trust serves 10 areas of social need: arts, culture and heritage; education and training; elderly services; emergency and poverty relief; environmental protection; family services; medicine and health; rehabilitation services; sports and recreation; and youth development. Thanks to improved business performance, regular charity donations quadrupled between 2007-08 and 2017-18.

In May, following a major project to restore and revitalise the Central Police Station compound, the club opened Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts on the site. The number of visits. topped one million within its first five months of operation.

Drawing on its sporting expertise, the club promotes community football and equestrian sport, while through its Riding High Together festival, which 45,000 people attended in 2018, it educates and inspires the wider community.

The club will continue to take forward its world-class racing, and through its integrated business model support the economic and social development of Hong Kong.

Outward Bound Hong Kong

Outward Bound Hong Kong (OBHK) provides personal development programmes for Hong Kong people to learn essential life skills and reach their maximum potential. It is the first and only experiential education organisation in Asia to be accredited by the international

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