No matter how busy I am with my schedule, I will always find some time to read the comments you leave me here through this blog, as I often find them to be very thoughtful and insightful. I ask my colleagues to follow up on the issues you raise where appropriate, and to reply to you at the earliest possible time.
You may remember that in last week's blog, many of you have kindly offered us your opinion about the Club’s TV racing programmes. In the meantime, we have also received many feedbacks since we launched the latest round of website enhancement last month. Among them, some of you inquired about the possibility of using iPhone or iPad to log in the Club’s eWin online betting service, and a few people said that since we launched the new authentication method last month, they find it difficult to browse the Club’s betting pages to search for the odds and other betting-related information they needed.
I know that iPhone and iPad have become increasingly popular as many people in Hong Kong now use these mobile devices and gadgets to communicate and browse information online. I can tell you that my IT colleagues are now working hard on this issue. We are targeting to launch an application (App) that will allow iPhone and iPad users to do betting transactions within this season. I would appreciate your patience as this project involves quite a number of considerations, including technical aspects and designing a positive user experience for customers placing bets and obtaining information through iPhones or iPads for horse racing, football as well as Mark Six.
We are also aware that many iPhone users encounter difficulty when browsing betting-related information. While we will work out a solution to fix this problem as soon as possible, our colleagues have explored another option for iPhone customers in the meantime. Customers using iPhone can visit eWinold.hkjc.com where the betslip will not be covering up anything you want to see.
To me, criticisms are just as important as positive comments, because they serve as a driving force for us to make further improvements and motivate my colleagues and me to do even better in the future, providing our customers with the very best services in the market.
I know that many racing fans visit the Club's website on a daily basis, searching for the racing information they need. That’s why we've put a lot of focus on web development and on providing enriched web content in recent years. Some of you may have noticed that we've launched a new feature column at our Racing site -- Raceday Focus. Our intention is to provide talking points for every race meeting by highlighting some declared starters that merit special attention, and supporting this information with relevant statistics. I hope you will find this useful and informative when you are studying the upcoming races.
I believe all of you had a great time with your families and friends in the Mid-Autumn Festival yesterday. As today’s a public holiday, we have arranged our regular midweek meeting to become a Thursday daytime meeting instead. Please make sure you go to the right track this afternoon as the races will be held at Happy Valley!
Among the 10 races on the card, I think the Hong Kong Country Club Challenge Cup is a real challenge to pick the winner, despite the smaller field size. With an expected good to slow pace, Great Bauhinia should take the lead. He ran on the same course and distance last season and finish a creditable second. I think he should be a very competitive runner in this event and let’s see if he can get his maiden victory in Hong Kong today. Fluke backs on from his last start, which finished second and just defeated by Fun Rider, but the two horses meet again today, with Fluke enjoying a 5-pound weight difference in his favour. I think this should give him the edge to beat his opponent this time. Prime Target will be another interesting contender, as he ran well last time and will enjoy going up in distance for his preferred 1800m event at the Valley.
In the Ireland Trophy, I will be interested to see how Valley performer Jumbo Gold from in-form trainer Caspar Fownes runs. This five-year-old should be placed in midfield in this race, which expected to be run at a good pace, and jockey Vincent Ho only needs to be careful and not to be trapped ride. I think he will be a very competitive runner in this open race. Among other runners, I think Solar Up will go for the lead after starting from Gate 2. He only needs to carry a light weight in this event and I’ll see if he can land the first winner for his trainer Michael Chang this season. Free And Easy, who ran well in his season debut last time, as well as My Time, who ran soundly for a second over 1000m a fortnight ago, could both benefit from the extended distance today and let’s see if they can spring a surprise in this race.
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