World Pool

Australia's G1 Blue Diamond S. in February will be part of the Hong Kong Jockey Club's World Pool for the first time in 2024, the HKJC announced on Wednesday. Held at Caulfield, the Blue Diamond on Feb. 24 will become the sixth World Pool event in Australia, after the Turnbull S. Day, The Everest Day, Caulfield Cup Day, Cox Plate Day and Victoria Derby Day. A trio of Australian races filled out the top five World Pool turnover races of 2023, with the HK$60 million (approx. £6 million) staked on...

The dramatic victory of the world's highest rated racehorse Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic in March has been voted the World Pool Moment of the Year. It is the second year of the award, which was given to G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and her groom Annabel Willis in 2022. The groom of near black superstar, Tomohiro Kusunoki, is the recipient of a VIP trip to the 2024 Hong Kong Derby or the 2024 Champions Day along with...

The World Pool season has ended with a 24% year-on-year turnover increase to HK$7.4 billion, the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) announced on Tuesday. The largest globally commingled horse racing pools created and powered by the HKJC, the World Pool started and finished the year at Flemington Racecourse in Australia. In total, there were 222 races--up from 154 races in 2022--in eight countries. World Pool was active in Germany, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Australia for the first time and expanded its imprint with extra races from the UK and Ireland....

World Pool turnover on Saturday's G1 British Champions S. Day at Ascot totalled HK$202.7 million (£21.4 million), bringing the figure for all races in 2023 commingled during the 19 World Pool days in the UK in and Ireland to HK$4.7 billion (£475 million). G1 King George S. Day at Ascot in July saw the biggest jump in turnover, rising from HK$253 million to a new record of HK$287 million, an increase of over 13%, while 2000 Guineas Day in May and Royal Ascot's first and third days in June also...

The debut of World Pool on The Everest Day at Randwick in Sydney last weekend saw new local highs reached for World Pool with more than A$57 million wagered across nine races and five different bet types. For the first time ever on an Australian race meeting, totalisator Win, Place, Quinella, Trifecta and Duet wagers from the state of New South Wales were combined with bets placed in Victoria and Western Australia as well as the Australian Capital Territory through S-TAB. A total of HK$284.3 million (A$57.5 million) was held...

Kicking off the World Pool meetings, last weekend's Turnbull Stakes Day at Flemington drew HK$133.4 million (approx. A$26.6 million) in wagering. The card consisted of five races from Flemington combined with four from Newmarket and one, the Gran Premio Latinoamericano, from San Isidro. Defending G1 Melbourne Cup champion Gold Trip took the featured G1 Turnbull S. The combined Win pool on the five World Pool races (A$6,545,489.82) was almost nine times the combined pool on the five non-World Pool races with the Victorian tote ($743,831.06). Meanwhile, the combined Duet (Quinella...

Sunday's G1 Longines Grand Premio Latinamericano at San Isidro will be an inaugural World Pool event and this will be the first time global betting will be engaged across three continents on a single weekend, the Hong Kong Jockey Club announced Thursday. The HKJC confirmed that while the local tote in Argentina will not commingle internationally, other partners' pools from the likes of Australia, France, North America and Hong Kong will be joined up by World Pool. The Latin American Group 1 contest will close a major weekend of World...

The upcoming Sun Chariot Day at Newmarket's Rowley Mile on Saturday, Oct. 7, will be worth a record £600,000, The Jockey Club announced on Thursday. The fixture will host four World Pool races for the first time, and the G1 Virgin Bet Sun Chariot S. will be worth £275,000. Another stakes, the G3 Tattersalls October Auction S., will carry a purse of £150,000, and both the 10-furlong British EBF Premier Fillies' H. and the 12-furlong British Stallion Studs EBF Premier Fillies' H. will each boast prize-money of £70,000. This quartet...

The Irish Champions Stakes Day at Leopardstown resulted in  €27.7 million (HK$232.2m) bet into the World Pool via the seven World Pool bet types in operation last Saturday. Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) delivered in the highlight race of the day--the G1 Irish Champion S. This was the third year World Pool was in operation on the Irish card, and turnover was almost on par with 2022's figure of HK$234.8m (approx. €27.9m) and significantly up on 2021's figure of HK$192.8m (€22.9m). Michael Fitzsimons, Executive Director, Wagering Products, at the...

A trio of new race days have been approved for the 2023 World Pool calendar by the Hong Kong SAR government, the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) announced on Thursday. The HKJC applied for Newmarket's Sun Chariot S. Day on Oct. 7, Turnbull S. Day at Flemington that same day, and Cox Plate Day at Moonee Valley on Oct. 28 to be added to the schedule. A total of four races will be world pool events at Newmarket that day, while five races at Flemington have been added to the...

Edited Press Release The turnover at Ascot Racecourse exceeded £100 million for the first time with a strong recovery from COVID-19 last season. The return to profit will allow for record prize money of £17 million set to be returned to the sport in 2023 and a voluntary increased loan repayment will help reduce debt ahead of schedule. The 2022 business summary highlighted several points of improvement: A return to profit with a pre-tax profit of £3.4m after two difficult years of COVID-19 restrictions. This compares to a pre-COVID profit...

Sunday's G1 Irish Derby at the Curragh and Hamburg's G1 Deutsches Derby cards both resulted in strong turnover for the World Pool, the Hong Kong Jockey Club announced on Wednesday. A total of HK$246.9 million (€28.9m/£24.9m) was reported as turnover on the eight-race Irish card and the Deutsches Derby, which was the first-ever World Pool event in Germany. Created and operated by the HKJC, the World Pool also offered value for racing fans with Tote+ Win beating SP in six of the eight races on Irish Derby Day and Tote+...