Chapter 636: Jockey Club members

Bao Yugang and Huo Yingdong exchanged glances, and the latter signalled to the former, who then laughed heartily and said, 'You have helped us so many times, and our hearts are made of flesh and blood, so how could we remain indifferent? But after thinking about it, I realised that you don't lack anything. A few months ago, I happened to listen to an opera, and was inspired by the line "since ancient times, heroes are paired with BMWs", and thought that you would like BMWs.'

'Well, Huo and I will each give you a horse, and we hope that you will be successful!'

'Now that you like the two horses, we feel relieved. At least we haven't wasted our efforts!'

Huo Yingdong nodded with a smile and said, 'That's what Lao Bao and I meant.'

Xia Yu shook his head with a smile, but his heart was warmed.

'Lao Bao, Lao Huo, I feel your kindness. You went to all this trouble to find two horses for me, and they are so precious. I feel so ashamed to accept them!'

Huo Yingdong immediately retorted with righteous indignation: 'Xia Yu, we should be the ones feeling ashamed. These two horses are not worth much. This is a small token of our appreciation. If you don't accept them, it will keep us up at night worrying about it!'

Bao Yugang also said solemnly, 'Yes, Xia Yu, compared to what you have done for us, these two horses are worthless. If you value me and Lao Huo, then don't refuse anymore, so as not to hurt our feelings.'

Xia Yu looked deeply at Bao Yugang and Huo Yingdong, smiled, shook his head, and said with emotion, 'Since you have said all this, if I continue to make excuses, it would be inconsiderate.'

'Then I'll accept it, thank you for your thoughtfulness!'

After these words, Bao Yugang and Huo Yingdong successively revealed smiles.

'Haha, you're welcome, it's the greatest honour for us if you like them.'

'Yes, we can sleep more soundly when we go back...'

'Hahaha...'

After laughing, Xia Yu continued to observe the two horses up close, and the more he looked, the more he liked them, and there was no hiding it on his face.

Now that the two horses are his, his appreciation of the horses has become different.

'By the way, Xia Yu, there is one more thing I want to tell you,'

Bao Yugang suddenly said.

Xia Yu raised his eyebrows slightly in confusion and asked, 'What is it?'

'I understand that you have not joined the Jockey Club, so I took the liberty to recommend you jointly with Lao Huo. The Jockey Club Board of Directors has unanimously approved it. The selection membership certificate will be here later, I will bring it to you in the living room,'

Bao Yugang recounted.

Xia Yu was very surprised and touched his chin, smiling and saying, 'I remember that in order to join the Jockey Club, you have to first submit an application and then find a sponsor. Am I skipping the process?'

He had not written an application to join the Jockey Club, and now, upon hearing Bao Yugang's words, he was surprised to learn that a certificate had even been issued, and he was even a select member with only 200 others.

Huo Yingdong laughed, saying with a straight face, 'This is the natural process for ordinary people, and they have to wait in line for four or five years. But if you do the same, the Hong Kong Jockey Club's reputation will be ruined.'

'It is the Hong Kong Jockey Club's honour to have you as a member. The board of directors was overjoyed when Bao and I recommended you.'

Bao Yugang nodded and laughed, 'That's right, ordinary people are proud to be a member of the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Now that your reputation is unparalleled, the Hong Kong Jockey Club is proud to have you as a member.'

'You don't know, you never joined the Jockey Club, and when people asked at some gatherings, the board of directors couldn't hold their faces, haha...'

Bao Yugang said, as if the scene at that time was floating in front of his eyes, and he couldn't help but laugh.

Xia Yu smiled. Although Bao Yugang and Huo Yingdong were praising him, on second thought, it was quite possible.

If you talk about which company and financial group has the largest capital and the widest influence in Hong Kong, it definitely has to be HSBC.

But if you exclude the Hong Kong government, and rank which organisation or company has the greatest influence over the whole of Hong Kong, everyone will say it is the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Founded in 1884, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which was originally established by a group of British people, is the world's largest speed horse racing organisation, and has also been designated by the Hong Kong government as the operator of the Hong Kong betting industry.

It also assists the government in combating illegal gambling. It is the largest non-profit organisation in Hong Kong and also the largest charity in Hong Kong, donating more than one billion Hong Kong dollars each year to charitable causes in Hong Kong.

The HKJC now has more than 20,000 members and employs more than 40,000 people, creating a large number of related jobs in catering, entertainment, shopping and other areas, and making a huge contribution to employment in Hong Kong.

In 1971, the HKJC switched to full professional racing, and the sport has become the biggest in Hong Kong. Every race meeting at the Sha Tin Racecourse, which can accommodate 80,000 spectators, is packed.

And every race day, millions of betting tickets are sold, amounting to tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

Ordinary people participate in buying lottery tickets and watching the races, while those wealthy businessmen and celebrities raise their own private horses and become horse owners of the Jockey Club, so as to participate in the Jockey Club races. The atmosphere of competition is very strong.

Xia Yu has now become a select member and also owns a horse, so he can definitely enter his horse in the races.

Speaking of which, it is necessary to mention the types of HKJC members.

There are two types of HKJC members: one is for the elite of society. As long as you pay the registration fee, have your information verified, and wait in line, it is normal to wait three to four years according to the current trend of everyone being proud to join the HKJC.

Almost all members of this type are elites from the upper and middle classes of society, with only one in a few hundred people.

The other type of membership tends to be more like a private club, and only those at the top of society are eligible to join. The application process is very strict, and only members who have been selected for three years or more are eligible to recommend someone, and then they must take an assessment to compete with other applicants for a place.

There are a few hundred members of this type in the entire Jockey Club, but only 200 of them are selected members, while the rest are ordinary members. However, even the qualifications for ordinary membership are unattainable for the former type of member.

However, for other people, it is very difficult to become a member of the second type of horse club.

However, for Xia Yu, it is a breeze. With his current strength and reputation, as long as he wants to join the horse club, there will definitely be a large number of selected members scrambling to become his recommenders, and absolutely no one will dare to stand up against his joining, unless the opponent believes that they can withstand Xia Yu's suppression and retaliation.

Although Xia Yu's Economic Weekly did not rank him at the top of the rich list, the bigwigs at the top knew that the rankings only revealed the tip of Xia Yu's iceberg, and that Xia Yu was definitely the top bigwig.

Many people secretly regarded his Jiuding Group as the number one Chinese conglomerate. This title, which came from nowhere, had spread like wildfire, and few people disagreed.

It is simply a slap in the face for the board of directors, who have always been committed to expanding the influence of the club, that such a top boss as Xia Yu has been drifting outside the club.

Many members are even looking forward to Xia Yu's joining, so that they can get connected with him through this platform.

It was in this situation that Bao Yugang and Huo Yingdong jointly recommended Xia Yu to become a member, and the somewhat bad rule of becoming a voting member in one go was surprisingly agreed by everyone.

That was just the way things were.

If you didn't have the right status, you would try hard to get into a certain circle, and be proud to be accepted.

If you had the right status, you wouldn't have to try hard to get in, because the high-class circle would be proud to have you, and would take the initiative to reach out to you.

Becoming a selected member of the Hong Kong Jockey Club would also be beneficial to Xia Yu. Coupled with the fact that he now owned two BMWs, not taking them out for a run on the track would be letting the horses down and also letting Bao Yugang and Huo Yingdong down.

Therefore, Xia Yu gladly accepted the fact.

'Bao, Huo, thank you!'

Xia Yu said gratefully.

'By the way, Xia Yu, there is a big horse racing day in five days, and the horse club will hold a welcome ceremony to welcome you. Why don't you also participate in the competition?'

Bao Yugang suggested, a glimmer of expectation flashing in his eyes.

Xia Yu thought about it for a while, and it seemed like a good choice. With two BMWs in his hands, of course he wanted to show everyone, and he also had a glimmer of expectation for the performance of the two horses he loved.

'This is a good idea, to register the two horses together, but before that I have to find two excellent horse trainers first,'

Xia Yu said after thinking about it.

Huo Yingdong smiled and said, 'Don't worry about it, we have already found five very good trainers for you. You can pick two tomorrow, and four or five days is enough time to get them ready for the race.'

'Your service is really thorough, it seems that you already knew that I would say yes,'

Xia Yu said.

'Hahaha...'

'Then thank you very much, tomorrow I will pick two trainers and take the horses to Sha Tin Racecourse to get familiar with the venue,'

'By the way, Bao and Huo, are you going to participate?'

Xia Yu asked the two men.

'Of course we are. This is the first major horse racing day of the second half of the year, it would be a shame not to participate.'

'Yes, as far as I know, at least 40 Chinese people in our league will participate. How can we not participate in such a grand event?'

Bao Yugang and Huo Yingdong said successively.

'Then we are competitors. Don't be surprised if I win with the horses you gave me.'

'Haha, if we're going to compete, I'll win either way, so I've got nothing to lose.'

'You really are...'

After the joke, Li Qian whispered to Xia Yu, 'Yu, since you're going to compete, you need to name the two horses.'

'That's right, you need to come up with a name. You're a great writer, more cultured than us, so come up with a high-class name.'

Bao Yugang urged with a smile.

Looking at the expectant gazes of the others, Xia Yu quietly looked at the two horses, and a smile curled the corners of his mouth.

'Since they are both horse kings, they are definitely not inferior to the famous horses of ancient times, and a modern name is not worthy of them.'

'One is a reddish-brown汗血宝马, and the other is a black horse king.'

'Why not call the red one 赤兔 and the black one 乌骓? I hope they are worthy of these names.'

'赤兔? 乌骓?'

Although Bao Yugang and Huo Yingdong both said they were uneducated, they knew about these two legendary horses.

'Chi Tu' was the number one horse in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and was known as the "Chi Tu among horses". It had two owners, "Lu Bu among men" and "the martial saint Guan Yu", which added to its legendary aura.

Needless to say, there is also the black stallion, the mount of the king of Western Chu. It followed Xiang Yu on his campaigns, and finally died with its master when they jumped into the river.

At this point, Xia Yu had already given the horses their names, which shows how highly he valued them.

After all, if they performed poorly in the race and had such names, it would definitely be a big joke. Xia Yu would lose face, not to mention the two people who gave the horses would also be embarrassed.

However, Bao Yugang and Huo Yingdong were very confident that the horses they had sent would not embarrass Xia Yu. After all, these two horses were purchased with great effort on their part, and their actual value alone would be enough to rank them among the top three at the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

This is not even comparable to the value of a champion that has won a race. If it has won a championship, its value will skyrocket several times, and it will definitely be ranked first or second.

'Then let's look forward to the day in five days when Red and Black will become famous in Hong Kong!'

'I'm looking forward to it too!'