Hi all, I’m currently in Melbourne and have already arrived at Flemington Racecourse, ready for the Melbourne Cup raceday taking place here today. Actually, I planned to fly to Australia earlier, but rescheduled my trip at short notice to follow up the eWin log-in problem as happened during our Happy Valley races last Sunday. We are very concerned about the incident and I would like to apologise to the inconvenience caused to the affected eWin users. But in the meantime, I hope to have your understanding as in view of the system’s complexity, we are now making our best efforts to follow up, and look into the root cause of the incident.
Shortly after the problem emerged last Sunday, we immediately took action and divert the eWin log-in traffic to the other data centre, and it eventually put the log-in system back to smooth operation. The disruption did not affect much on our business as transaction volume through eWin remained at normal level last Sunday, which stood at about 97 per cent of regular amount. Anyway, I will return and arrive in Hong Kong early Wednesday morning, and, together with my colleagues, continue to follow up the status and related investigations.
Despite busy schedule, as a horse lover, it’s always great to have the chance to attend the Melbourne Cup, as this two-mile contest is not only the biggest event of the year in Australian racing, but has also long been one of the most significant races in the world. It's the richest thoroughbred race in the southern hemisphere, with a total purse of A$6 million, which is more than HK$45 million. I believe that Hong Kong racing fans will be especially interested to follow the race on our simulcast this year, as our own Mr Medici, last season’s Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup winner, will be among the 23 starters.
It is some 16 years since a Hong Kong-trained horse last participated in the Melbourne Cup, namely the legendary River Verdon who finished 20th in the 1994 edition behind David Hayes-trained Jeune. Having run a creditable 6th in the Caulfield Cup a fortnight ago, Mr Medici showed nice progress in Australia over the past month and I hope he can run a good race today. But certainly, Australian champion So You Think is now in sizzling form. He will start as the race favourite and will definitely be the horse to beat. Should he win the Melbourne Cup, he will be creating a record in recent racing history for a horse to score a hat trick of the Cox Plate, Mackinnon Stakes and the Melbourne Cup in a year. It will be great to have the chance witness this new chapter of history here.
The weather here is much better than the day when the Victoria Derby held last Saturday. But in the morning, we had another shower and the track is expected to be read as “dead”, which will make it difficult for all the horses who need good going. In my opinion, the good draw of 3 will favour So You Think, as the horse can be ideally positioned. I think he will be difficult to beat. But Alain de Royer-Dupre-trained Americain ran very well in his victory in the G3 Geelong Cup last time. With Gerald Mosse on board, he will be the main danger in this race. Caulfield Cup winner Descarado is also in top form. Having run second behind So You Think in Mackinnon, he should also be well positioned and he also has the chance to finish close in this race. A surprise could be the light weight Maluckyday, as this gelding has a great draw and is a highly promising horse. For Mr Medici, his chances will certainly increase with more rain to come. I think he will have outside chance to be placed, and if he would finish in the first five, it would be a great result for the connections.
By the way, we have also invited former Australian jockey Patrick Payne, and our Club jockey Zac Purton for our Melbourne Cup simulcasts, as Patrick has made his personal analysis on the five races on our simulcast programmes and they are all available on the Club’s racing website. Zac will also be joining us as the guest commentator for our live simulcast programme today. So, you can find out which horses are Patrick’s and Zac’s top choices in these races today.
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