São Paulo’s Jockey Club has approved a strategic partnership with Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual that could inject around BR250m into the racecourse.
This comes as the institution attempts to recover from hundreds of millions of reais in debt.
The partnership was approved by 115 of the 117 members who attended an extraordinary general meeting. One member voted against the proposal and one ballot was left blank.
The agreement is expected to support the modernization of the racecourse, which occupies a 619,000-square-metre site in São Paulo’s southern zone.
BTG Pactual declined to comment on the negotiations at the time, while market sources indicated that the bank’s interest in the property was not new given the strategic value of the site.
The relationship between the two institutions had already expanded in 2026, when BTG Pactual sponsored the Grande Prêmio São Paulo, the country’s main horse-racing event, held at Cidade Jardim in May.
The partnership comes as the Jockey Club faces severe financial pressure
The institution entered judicial recovery in September 2025 with around BR19m in liabilities covered by the restructuring proceedings. It also has approximately BR640m in outstanding municipal, state and federal tax debts, bringing its total debt to around BR659m.
The club’s financial difficulties were aggravated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and municipal legislation restricting betting involving animals.
Shortly before the BTG Pactual vote, the São Paulo courts authorized the municipality to seize BR300,000 that the Jockey Club was due to receive as the final payment for renting its facilities for the Latin America Open.
The Jockey Club is also facing scrutiny over the use of public incentive funds intended for restoration work.
The approval of the partnership ends the internal deliberation phase, the final structure of the contracts and the timeline for the modernization works have yet to be defined
