To many, it will be difficult to separate him from the world of horse racing. He lives and breathes it and often choreographs the next moves.
Some might even think that the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club was born in a stable. But that would be Jesus.
Though Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has his personal Jesus moments, he’s not a one dimensional man. And nor is he a big fish in a small pool.
The German born horse racing professional who has helmed the obstacle course that is the Hong Kong Jockey Club with over 28,000 employees since 2007, and after his arrival in the city in 1998 as Director of Racing, has an inquisitive mind and despite his deep dive into horse racing is no one trick pony.
He’s extremely knowledgeable about films- we’re both huge fans of The Godfather Trilogy, Young Frankenstein, Usual Suspects and the work of Martin Scorsese- and music, with his favourites being artists like Barry White, Amy Winehouse and James Brown and his own Octopussy Dance.
He has a rapier sense of humour, and knows how to manoeuvre himself around the politics of the horse racing world full of Yes People, those blowing smoke up his bon bon and has thrown a very wide net for himself in this industry.
The man known as “E.B” has so many titles and positions within the global racing world that he might seem to be weighed down by tantric positions that even Sting wouldn’t know about.
His staying power is quite extraordinary as are his results- the main one being taking Hong Kong racing into the international arena and then turning this into a world class product and continuing its evolution.
Can this product be better?
Anything can be better.
Yes, he has been described by some as “The Dictator” of the “evil empire”, he and I agree to disagree and took a one year break from each other in 2023.
I needed new challenges and a certain standard of creativity that horse racing couldn’t give, though it was Winfried who persuaded me to leave running EMI Music in the region that was in its death throes by offering me the opportunity to create what became the Happy Wednesday brand.
Though saddled with a team of corporate underlings, most of whom didn’t understand the difference between marketing, and advertising and public relations nor all-important music marketing, we did more than Okay.
The Happy Wednesday brand was not only an immediate game changer in the restrictive world of horse racing, Winfried and I had created something new for Hong Kong.
This was a much-needed mid-week break for many of those “younger people” in the city, largely the expat community, who could have something that gave them a sense of belonging- and fun- every Wednesday at Happy Valley racecourse.
Covid and the lockdown years strangled the world, and with Hong Kong also hit with the double and triple whammy protests of 2018-19 and a mass exodus from Hong Kong of, especially, the young expat community and very good local talent.
With overnight “influencers” and “KOLs” and many playing the social media numbers games with bots, and a city losing its internationalism and mojo, I couldn’t see anything Happy or creative and inspiring happening in Hong Kong- I still can’t- and took time out to leave the city for a few months.
Some might have thought and hoped I had disappeared forever.
Returning to the new abnormal of a very much scaled down Hong Kong where I had to spend a mandatory week in isolation in a hotel that was like something out of “The Shining”, this changed me forever.
My third eye became sharper and I started writing my journography that brought me to Hong Kong from Ceylon, plus writing a children’s story for adults about the need for Hope and involved myself in two international series for a certain streaming platform.
Though divorced from the HKJC, this isn’t to say that I wasn’t watching what was going on- and not happening- with the pastime in Hong Kong and around the world.
The Covid and lockdown years and ‘live’ streaming had brought about a significant drop in attendance figures- and a certain lethargy.
There was Hong Kong’s “racing bubble” that was needed to keep racing going, whereas in Australia, other than pop-up races and its slots with more and more increases in prize money, there were the usual game of thrones while a global economy headed south.
Many fail to understand that horse racing, and being an organisation as huge as the Hong Kong Jockey Club with its Charities Trust is a business- and not only about which jockey was “trying” on what and the usual ankle biting and naïveté that’s been around for decades.
In Victoria, there were the usual misfired hires through the Buddy System, a creaky business model starring overrated tipsters, a compliant racing media making mewing sounds, and a captive audience from the home for the aged, and too many being legends in their own lunchtime on X.
It wasn’t a good look for horse racing and very probably why that younger audience keeps looking away except for the big race days when it’s party time.
After those Kumbaya moments?
Here is the opportunity to see what could happen with thinking that doesn’t follow others, and bring something new to horse racing.
In Hong Kong, for example, just because there’s racing twice a week, this doesn’t mean not marketing and promoting horse racing all year long, but not with hackneyed ideas.
Horse racing should, by now, be something that isn’t all about the ugly sounding word called the “punt” and not delivered for public consumption with a Warning sign to an ageing core audience base.
It is about making horse racing become part of the wider world of sports entertainment.
For this to happen it needs an experienced team knowing what it takes to create a likeable product personality that attracts business partners in places like the tech sector.
There is a need to work with mainstream communications channels that reach a far larger audience base than horse racing reportage.
One must also have that roller deck to piggyback and work with the talent and creative and marketing strategies being used by popular online consumer brands.
Surely, it’s about making horse racing more aspirational with smart marketing that isn’t about being a big fish in a small ARF pond or the only fish in a very large ARF pond?
At 70 years young, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges can glide through his current position as the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and manage to focus on his pet project at the training and facilities in Conghua in China.
But is this enough for him- and the future of horse racing?
Someone like Winfried should by now be working with well-known names in the international sporting and multi media arena who are game changers OUTSIDE of horse racing.
These should be those who can bring something new and different and exciting to horse racing instead of spending more time covering the same old gringo ground of Blazing Saddles and baked beans.
I believe that he should and could and will. And soon.
Why?
Because horse racing needs to be revived and saved by those with the experience and right breeding and pedigree and not by those just making up the numbers.
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