Over the years, the implementation of our Special Replacement Permit Scheme has proved a great success, as many Owners and trainers have introduced some very qualified runners into Hong Kong. Taking yesterday’s BMW Champions Mile as an example, race contenders such as Sunny King and Thumbs Up were both introduced into Hong Kong through this scheme, while three other scheme participants, including California Memory, Irian and Viva Pataca, will take part in the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup this Sunday.
In response to the fervent request of Owners and trainers, since 2006, we have accordingly amended the rating requirement of these imports, so as to give them more choices when they select young and upcoming horses into Hong Kong. If a horse has a Hong Kong rating of 85 or higher at the time of import; and has won a race or been placed second or third in a Group or Listed event, that runner can then be eligible for importation to Hong Kong under the Special Replacement Permit Scheme.
Business As Usual, which ran well to finish third in a Class 3 mile event in the Happy Valley meeting last Wednesday, has been a classic case for the Club’s Handicappers to have applied this logic. Unfortunately, however, one critic recently suggested that the initial rating which the Handicappers imposed on this British import, represented a deviation from our usual practice.
In fact, at the time we give initial Hong Kong ratings to imported horses, the Club’s handicappers will refer to factors such as the horses’ overseas form and performances in races, and sometimes the eventual performances of the opponents they defeated are taken into consideration, too.
For Business As Usual’s case, I’ve done a bit of research on his record and found that he won twice in his four starts in Britain. Having won once in his two starts as a two-year-old, he started the 2010 season with a fourth place finish in a handicap. On his next start, his last in the UK, he won a handicap off his rating of 88 at Newmarket, giving two pounds and a half length beating to Ransom Note. The victory saw his rating being raised to 95 for this performance.
About three weeks after Business As Usual’s victory, Ransom Note won the 27-runner Britannia Stakes, an ultra-competitive three-year-old handicap over a mile at Royal Ascot, and his rating was raised to 100. Information provided by my colleagues showed that after that race, we received an enquiry regarding the eligibility of Ransom Note being imported into Hong Kong as a Special Replacement, and that application was approved. Subsequently, applications were also received regarding Business As Usual, asking whether he would be eligible as a Special Replacement.
Having considered the fact that Business As Usual was a lightly-raced horse which was improving, and which had put up his best performance on his most recent start, when he worked out a superior horse to Ransom Note, I learnt that our handicappers considered it appropriate to approve him as a Special Replacement, too. They were in the view that it would have been very harsh to turn down an application for a progressive young horse, which had given weight and a beating to a horse which had been approved as a Special Replacement having won at Royal Ascot less than three weeks later.
Later on, Ransom Note snatched one more victory in a handicap event at York, raising his year-end rating to 106. Having won the Group 3 Earl of Sefton Stakes at Newmarket earlier this month, his international rating is now raised to 114.
I can assure you that our handicappers have conducted such an assessment process in a fair and unbiased manner; and in my personal view, it is not only disappointing for the commentator to say the horse was given a special treatment to facilitate a higher price at a sale. For me, it is even more unacceptable to question our handicappers’ integrity.
As we all know, every imported horses have different ability to acclimatise to different environment. Some would totally settle in Hong Kong quicker, while some others may need more time to do so, before they are able to perform their best in races on our home turf. Having said that, it’s good to see the progress made by Business As Usual, and the way he got his first Hong Kong placing last Wednesday. Let’s see if he will continue to improve and deliver even better performances in his future runs in Hong Kong.
I always welcome an exchange of views and opinion with our racing media friends, as only by getting involved in discussion can we improve racing’s general development. I hope that as a result of my explanation everybody will understand a little more about the grounds for the decision made by the handicappers.
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