In its aim to bring the next generation of fans through the turnstiles, the Jockey Club hopes a pair of new venues at Happy Valley can change the game of racecourse experience.

Combining AI innovation with entertainment, The Beat and Vantage – located on the second and third floor of the Pavilion Stand at Happy Valley racecourse – hope to provide customers with a one-stop shop for everything digital, dining and racing.

The venues come with features such as an AI parade ring and interactive race cards, and Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges is confident they can entice the next generation of fans to a night at the races.

“To sustain our world-class racing as an international brand for Hong Kong, we must stay close to the fast-changing aspirations of our customers in the digital age,” Engelbrecht-Bresges said.

“The Beat and Vantage are the Club’s response, pioneering a new digital racecourse concept that in the coming years will further need to strengthen our Happy Wednesday brand, whose vibrant mix of sporting and social entertainment is well received by local fans and tourists.”

While they may not be ideal venues for the hardcore racing fan, The Beat and Vantage offer an enjoyable change from the normal day-to-day racing experience.

Vantage offers an evening catered more towards fine dining, with the potential for private booths, whereas The Beat, as the name suggests, aims to create a “social community hub” courtesy of a live band.

These improvements are geared towards complementing the raft of developments that are under way at Sha Tin racecourse and the wider plan to boost the city’s attractiveness to tourists.

New restaurants targeted at young people, what the club calls “Instagrammable locations”, and even a digital version of great racehorse Golden Sixty that greets guests are all part of the plan to liven up Sha Tin in time for the 2025-26 racing season.

“We will implement a holistic digital transformation of the entire customer journey for racegoers, from pre-race preparation, race day experiences, all the way to post-race engagement,” said Dennis Hau, the Jockey Club’s executive director for customer strategy, insights and innovation.

“It’s part of our very important mission to create a whole new horse-racing experience for the next generation.

“For the new generation, we need to create a one-stop digital experience for them to do with horse racing and hopefully this is just the start of that. For example, in the Beat, it’s a social community hub, we provide live music and it’s vibrant.

“We want to digitise the racecourse, so this is a very important milestone for us, to create the very first end-to-end digital experience.”

And if you want to enjoy a racing-themed cocktail at the venue, you can help yourself to a Romantic Warrior or a Lucky Sweynesse.