Life of Guangzhou - HK Jockey Club first for Fan

Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai last night became the first woman in the Hong Kong Jockey Club's 124-year history to be elected to the 12-member board of stewards.

She was the only new steward chosen by 200 voting members at the annual general meeting.

Chairman John Chan Cho-chak and deputy chairman Brian Stevenson were also re-elected by the board.

Fan will serve the remaining two- year term of Robert Kwok Chin-kung who is retiring in October.

Fan said 20 percent of the club's membership were women. She said her relations with the club began as a child since her late father, Hsu Ta-tung, was a horse-racing fan.

She has been a frequent visitor to the racecourse as her late husband, Stephen Fan Sheung-tak, was also a racegoer.

Fan said her role as a standing committee member of the National People's Congress was not relevant to the stewardship, but she does hope to help her mainland friends better understand the Jockey Club.

Horse racing betting turnover increased by 5.8 percent to HK$67.7 billion in the 2007-2008 season, the first time in more than a decade that turnover had grown for two consecutive years.

Despite the success, Chan said the club still faces challenges posed by neighboring regions. Other than Macau, Vietnam and Singapore have been rapidly developing their gambling industries while Hong Kong had barely taken a step forward.

Chan said Hong Kong needs to catch up with the global trend so that the expenses of gamblers would go to the Jockey Club for charity use instead of going to the pockets of profit-making organizations.

He added that having former civil servants and politicians on the board make negotiations with the government easier because they are familiar with each other. There is no need to spend time on ice-breaking.

(By Nickkita Lau)

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