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In a coup for the New Zealand racing industry, the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) have announced the arrival of World Pool to two New Zealand thoroughbred meetings in early 2025.
In an unprecedented development for the New Zealand racing industry, the TAB Karaka Millions meeting, featuring the Group 1 Sistema Railway, at Ellerslie in Auckland on January 25 will be the first of the two World Pool meetings.
The second World Pool meeting will take place on the newly created Champions Day on March 8, also at Ellerslie. Champions Day is home to four Group 1 races, including the Trackside New Zealand Derby and Bonecrusher Stakes, as well as the inaugural running of The NZB Kiwi – the richest race for 3-year-olds in the Southern Hemisphere.
The presence of World Pool leads to increased international viewership, as well as providing much larger pools for New Zealand's TAB customers to bet into.
Lachlan Fitt, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Entain Australia and New Zealand, the operators of New Zealand's TAB, said the announcement reflects the progress made in New Zealand racing in the past 18 months.
"World Pool is an exciting opportunity to share the very best of New Zealand racing internationally," Fitt said.
"The benefits of having the thoroughbred racing world firmly focused on New Zealand for these two meetings cannot be underestimated. As well as the advantages that our TAB customers will see, World Pool meetings are a confirmation that New Zealand racing is making its mark on the global stage."
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the hosts of World Pool, was delighted to welcome New Zealand as a World Pool partner.
"New Zealand has a long and rich horseracing history with an outstanding record of producing champion horses, jockeys and trainers on the international stage. Not only is New Zealand a proven nursery in terms of equine and human racing talents, but it also boasts a vibrant and respected domestic racing structure crowned by world-class Group 1 races."
New Zealand-bred equine champions like Sunline, Beauty Generation, Vengeance Of Rain, Aerovelocity, Lucky Sweynesse, and more recently, the exciting Ka Ying Rising, have excelled in Hong Kong, and Kiwis have made their mark in the training and jockey ranks as well.
"New Zealanders James McDonald, Shane Dye, Paul O'Sullivan and Jamie Richards are synonymous with racing excellence and also strongly linked to Hong Kong and it is upon this foundation our World Pool partnership is founded," Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
"New Zealand becomes the ninth racing jurisdiction to have its elite Group 1 races included in the World Pool operation and, from a personal viewpoint, it is wonderful reflect on the close racing ties shared between New Zealand and Hong Kong.
"New Zealand occupies a special place in the international racing ecosystem due to its excellence in breeding and, as a like-minded partner, the New Zealand TAB has been a strong supporter of international commingling, joining the HKJC pools for local races and other international World Pool events since 2019. We very much looked forward to a continuation of this collaboration."
Auckland Thoroughbred Racing Chief Executive Paul Wilcox said: "We can't wait to host these two meetings, and all the attention that World Pool brings. With the addition of World Pool, we'll be building on the hard work that delivered a game-changing TAB Karaka Millions in 2024 and producing a stunning new raceday on Champions Day."
NZ Thoroughbred Racing Chair Russell Warwick said: "To have World Pool operating on not one but two meetings in New Zealand is a great boost for the industry. These meetings were already promising to be world-class affairs, and the arrival of World Pool takes them to another level."
About World Pool:
Powered by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, World Pool accepts bets from the HKJC's overseas partners. This creates the deepest and most liquid pari-mutuel pools for international top races, including 84 IFHA Top 100 races from the past three years to be part of World Pool during the 2024/25 Hong Kong season. Two of these are from New Zealand.
Since its inception at Royal Ascot in 2019, World Pool has provided tremendous benefits to horse racing around the world by driving global promotion of our sport with a focus on the very best racing has to offer with outstanding horses, jockeys and trainers competing in the world's best races.
World Pool has repeatedly demonstrated the importance of having a strong funding mechanism to sustain global horse racing by providing increased returns to the industry and its participants through its commingling model.
With customers from at least 25 participating countries and regions around the world wagering into a single pool, World Pool creates superior liquidity, better value opportunities, greater certainty of odds and enhanced returns. World Pool is also a key weapon in the fight against illegal gambling operators with its enhanced liquidity and subsequent returns to our sport.
These benefits are passed to the racing industry, allowing authorities to invest in prizemoney and infrastructure, including improvements to equine welfare and racecourse facilities.
World Pool has expanded to meetings in Argentina, Australia, Germany, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. The vision on expansion is to include as many IFHA Top 100 races in World Pool fixtures as possible.
