{"id":608912,"date":"2026-04-15T17:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/608912\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T17:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:31:14","slug":"rugby-and-racing-fans-bring-party-atmosphere-of-hong-kong-sevens-to-happy-valley-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/608912\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby and racing fans bring party atmosphere of Hong Kong Sevens to Happy Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Aussie pop icon Jason Donovan, an Abba tribute act and rugby officials, players and fans brought a party atmosphere to Happy Valley, as racing took its turn in the Hong Kong Sevens spotlight on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">And the racecourse was dressed for the occasion, with rugby-themed decorations and activities drawing crowds of fans already in town for the city\u2019s biggest sporting week.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The venue\u2019s \u201cShout Stand\u201d resembled the infamous South Stand at Kai Tak Stadium, with costumed spectators singing along to Babba\u2019s rendition of Dancing Queen.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">For some, it wasn\u2019t just their first time in Hong Kong, it was their first experience of watching horses fly across the turf.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cMy friend who travelled to Hong Kong before recommended this place to me,\u201d Gia, an American visiting the city for the first time, said. \u201cIt is kind of scary to watch horses running really fast in front of me. But this is so amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The theme of the week is rugby, with some racing thrown in. Photo: Edmond So\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/be94abe4-cce1-4e20-8f35-3c8f21c4a6f0_1126e908.jpg\" title=\"The theme of the week is rugby, with some racing thrown in. Photo: Edmond So\"\/>The theme of the week is rugby, with some racing thrown in. Photo: Edmond So<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">According to the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), the attendance of 20,672 was up 30 per cent on a comparable night last year, while turnover hit HK$1.3 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aussie pop icon Jason Donovan, an Abba tribute act and rugby officials, players and fans brought a party&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[296008,64,63,81,2065,11922,1208,1119,218004,10340,189868,29477,760,106308,296009,85,295078],"class_list":{"0":"post-608912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-abba","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-chester","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-football-club","16":"tag-happy-valley","17":"tag-hong-kong","18":"tag-jason-donovan","19":"tag-kai-tak-stadium","20":"tag-rugby","21":"tag-sevens","22":"tag-simon-waite","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-tradition-hkfc-s"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}