Our midweek Happy Valley races – which we themed as a "Joy Luck Party" to mark the Chinese tradition of "everybody’s birthday" on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year – gave us further cause for encouragement, with turnover reaching a season high for a night meeting of HK$933 million. In fact, it was the highest figure for any night meeting, other than season finales, since April 2002.
On the track we also enjoyed some keen contests between Brett Prebble, Zac Purton and Greg Cheyne, particularly the "battle royal" between Zac’s Romantic City and Brett’s Turbo King which brought the evening to a truly thrilling close. Given the way both horses ran, I think we will see them delivering some useful results in upcoming starts.
For those who stayed up later into the night, there were some top international football teams in action, albeit in friendly matches. Most results seemed to follow the form book with my home country Germany held to a 1-1 draw by Italy, England defeating Denmark 2-1, and World Cup champions Spain beating Colombia 1-0, although France caused a bit of an upset by winning 1-0 at home to Brazil.
With the team built around Barcelona stars like Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, Carles Puyol and David Villa, along with other top players such as Fernando Torres and Iker Casillas, Spain now become an indomitable force in world football. Apart from their successes in the Euro 2008 and last year’s World Cup, they achieved a record-tying 35 matches unbeaten between 2006 and 2009, which in my view is a great achievement for the Iberians as sometimes you cannot avoid your key players being unavailable for matches for reasons of injury or suspension. This, however, does not seem to be a problem for Spain as their bench players are also very skilful and able to step in smoothly without upsetting the team's momentum. They play at a consistently high level and I find them a very entertaining team to watch.
Maintaining a consistently high level of success is difficult in any sport, not least horse racing where the handicap system can have a significant impact. Horses that achieve multiple wins in a season find their ratings rising rapidly, so each time they try to extend their winning streak, they face stronger and better opponents. Their trainers need to make extra efforts to keep them in top condition and at optimum bodyweight, and must plan their schedules very carefully so as to ensure the best possible results.
At our Sha Tin races this afternoon you will see two of our most improved runners this season - Captain Sweet and King Al Akbar – facing each other in the Class 2 Peony handicap. Captain Sweet remains unbeaten in his five starts this season, and this three-year-old has seen his rating rise by 44 points since his season debut last September. King Al Akbar is the only other five-win racehorse this term, missing out only once when placed fourth in a 1400m event in November. He will enjoy a nine-pound claim from Captain Sweet in today's match-up and I will be keen to see if either horse can be the first to win six races this season.
With the expected slow pace in this race, I think it should give significant advantages to our Rising Stars Captain Sweet and Flying Blue, as both of them can take the lead, but Flying Blue has to overcome his wide draw of 14. Although the pacing could be a disadvantage for King Al Akbar, but I think he is still a strong force among the field, while outsider Danzulu also has the chance for close finish in this race.
Meanwhile, the Group 3 Jebsen Centenary Vase will feature several top-class runners such as last year’s Derby winner Super Satin and runner-up Super Pistachio, Derby Trial winner King Dancer, and one of this year’s Derby hopefuls, rising star Jacobee. Mighty High and Super Pistachio are expected to take the lead. With the expected good-to-slow pace in this race, it should give advantage to Mighty High as he showed a revival in his form in his last start. I think he will have the chance to finish in the money. I believe the battle between Super Satin, who has his blinkers removed, and Jacobee, will be the main focus of this race. For Super Satin, his performance in the January Cup last time was a bit disappointing, but I would give another chance to him. Having said that, Jacobee with the light weight will definitely pose a serious threat to the Derby champion. Jamesina, who performed decently in both Sha Tin and Happy Valley in his two previous starts, will be the horse that could spring a surprise.
After this afternoon's races, hopefully I can get back home in time to watch the Manchester Derby between United and City, which has an early kick-off at 8.45 pm Hong Kong time. United suffered a shock first defeat of the season away to Wolves last week, but they still have a four-point cushion at the top of the table. For City, this match will be crucial if they want to retain any real chance of challenging for the Premiership title this season. Both Carlos Tevez and their new winter signing, Bosnian international Edin Dzeko, are in good form, so it promises to be a very interesting match. I'm sure all our local football fans will be as anxious as me not to miss it.
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