On Tuesday, the German national football team defeated another European powerhouse the Netherlands, winning 3-0 in a friendly match held in Hamburg. Having watched the match highlights, I must say the team played quite well. In particular, I'd pick out striker Miroslav Klose, who produced an industrious, all-round performance for his team in the front line, scoring a goal and setting up two others.
Although he is now 33 and playing outside Germany for the first time, having moved to top Italian side Lazio in the summer, Klose still shows great form and has an excellent scoring record at both Club and national team level. He has now scored 63 goals for Die Mannschaft, which puts him five short of the all-time German record held by legendary striker Gerd Müller.
Some less positive news that caught my attention this week was the arrest of a Hong Kong under-21 team player by the ICAC, allegedly for offering bribes to his teammates to affect the result of a match. The match in question was a special exhibition match against the Russian National Youth Team on Tuesday to mark the official re-opening of the renovated Mong Kok Stadium.
The Government and the Hong Kong Football Association are investing a lot of efforts at the moment into upgrading the standard of local football, so it's regrettable that an incident like this should threaten to spoil the hard work. Reports suggest that the arrested player may have links with illegal bookies who set up pools on this international friendly.
I think this case clearly demonstrates that illegal and online bookmakers not only seize every opportunity to take bets on different kinds of matches, but in some cases, will also resort to illegal channels to try controlling the results. It shows the severity of this issue and how far some illegal activities reach. Once football fans – especially young people – are exposed to these illegal bookmakers or syndicates, who operate beyond legal regulation or control, they can easily be lured into becoming regular patrons and be taking part in other types of sports betting services offered by these groups. This will just create more social problems and it is a very unwelcome situation for society.
The Club has always placed huge importance on promoting responsible gambling, and not permitting any underage person to bet or access its betting premises. Neither do we offer credit betting to our customers. In limiting the scale of betting opportunities we provide to the local public, we hope to meet the demands of the majority and ensure that most local gaming money is attracted to legal and responsible channels. This also means that betting demand can be converted into huge tax revenues and charitable donations through the Club's not-for-profit business model.
Over the past week we've reported some very encouraging figures in our racing operations, as turnover reached HK$1.23 billion last Sunday and over HK$920 million on Wednesday. These two meetings alone have generated more than HK$250 million in betting duties for the Government. And there could be lots more to come at our Sha Tin race meeting tomorrow, as we are hosting our first international races of the season, the Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Sprint, Mile and Cup, and they all promise to provide a real treat for our racing fans.
The Sprint and Cup races have been run since 2002 and the Mile was added in 2003, with the aim of offering the chance for our top horses to have a preparation run for December's International Races, or try to secure a starting berth in them. These three races were all elevated to international Group 2 status last year, and at the same time renamed to reflect their growing international status and importance in the local racing calendar.
Making it even more special this year, we have arranged for the three races to be held on the same day. This will give all the horsemen involved, whether local or from overseas, the chance to assess the current form of their top contenders, as it will for our home racing fans.
Popular French jockey Maxime Guyon and South African rider Felix Coetzee will both return to our jockey line-up to compete in these three international races tomorrow. So please join us at Sha Tin to watch how they perform when partnering the likes of Ambitious Dragon and Super Pistachio.
Let me share with you my personal analysis of the three races, starting with the Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Sprint, which in my view is a wonderful prelude for the HKIR. The pace is expected to be good to slow and the selected B+2 course should favour a little bit for horses in the front of the field. Multiglory is the natural leader but he is not at his best at the moment and he’s likely share the lead with Dim Sum who had a wide trip last time, resulting him fading in the final 300m. Entrapment should be well positioned in the front of the field. He's on form and performed nicely in trackwork. I think he will be the horse to beat. His main opponent is Little Bridge who should get a good position in the front of the field and will give Entrapment a fight. Joy And Fun should not be underestimated as he shows nice condition in trackwork, but he will have to come from the back of the field. The unknown factor is Admiration who is a very talented horse and his latest winner at the all-weather showed his strong potential. I am not sure what his best distance will be and I am inclined to say 1400m, but he’s also quite effective over 1200m. He will have a place chance for me.
The Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Cup is expected to run at good to slow pace, with Super Pistachio and Packing OK leading. Mighty High will also be likely to join them up front. Super Pistachio is coming back to form and I would not be surprised to see this runner, to be ridden by Felix Coetzee this time, being placed in this race. Jacobee should be well placed and is a very honest horse and is a place chance for me on current race form and trackwork. Thumbs Up has plenty of talent but he often not fulfils what he promises, but based on his performance in the last start he should have the chance to be placed. Irian’s last run was over a too short distance for him now, but it was very encouraging. If there's any horse who can beat the clear race favourite California Memory, I think it will be Irian who last year was very impressive in winning the same race. California Memory on race form and trackwork is the horse to beat but being drawn in Gate 3, this isn’t necessarily an advantage for him as when you come from the back of the field, you face a higher risk of not getting your run.
The Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Mile is a very promising race with our top milers facing reigning Horse of the Year Ambitious Dragon. The good to slow pace will help Able One and Beauty Flash to take the lead. Last year Able One was very dominating and even now being a nine-year-old, he has plenty of life in him and is difficult to run down which makes him a good place chance. Beauty Flash is coming back to form and was beaten only two lengths in his last start. He's not yet at his best but I think he still has a good place chance. Xtension works very well and was beaten only in the last strides in his last start, but he lacked a bit of luck as he was drawn an outside gate again. He has a good top-three chance but with this gate he is at risk to be wide and this makes it difficult for him to beat Ambitious Dragon, who works very well and can run a very fast sectional time in the last 400m which makes it very difficult to beat him.
Comment
