I'm sure you'll agree that last Sunday was one of the most memorable days in Hong Kong’s racing history – and a fantastic present for my birthday earlier this week – with our home runners achieving their best-ever result in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin.
Our local trio of Lucky Nine in the Sprint, Able One in the Mile and California Memory in the Cup brought Hong Kong its first hat-trick of G1 wins in these Turf World Championships since 2002. Indeed we came within three-quarters of a length of a clean sweep, with Thumbs Up finishing a close second to Melbourne Cup winner Dunaden in the Vase.
On a day of so many great memories, I doubt that anyone will have better reason to celebrate than our homegrown jockey Matthew Chadwick, who steered California Memory to victory in the Cup and earned his first Group 1 victory at international level – in fact the first G1 victory by any local jockey in our Hong Kong International Races, though the horse's trainer Tony Cruz also won the Invitation Cup, which was then only an invitational event, in 1989.
Matthew positioned his horse in the box seat early in the race and followed the pair of front-runners before finding space in the home stretch to make a well-timed winning run. To me, it was a perfect riding performance, and hopefully this top-level success will be just a starting point for Matthew and other homegrown jockeys. I believe most local racing fans would love to see these young talents riding more international G1 winners in the years to come.
Matthew’s success is an especially fine tribute to the efforts of our racing academy, the HKJC Apprentice Jockeys’ School. I must congratulate my colleagues there for the great work they've been doing in producing young riders who not only possess top class skills in the saddle, but also show the character and determination needed to succeed at the top levels of this demanding sport.
Great credit should also go to Matthew himself, as this emphatic victory helped make amends for his earlier disappointments in the Singapore Airlines International Cup in May and the Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Cup last month. He held his nerve and was able to overcome the mental pressures of those frustrating experiences, which is a sure-fire demonstration of his sportsmanship and professionalism.
Sunday was an outstanding meeting from a business perspective, too, as more than 67,000 people came to watch at the racecourses and turnover for the day reached HK$1.24 billion, the highest for our International Races since 1998. These figures underline horse racing’s status as the most popular spectator sport in Hong Kong. The biggest beneficiary of all on Sunday, though, was the Hong Kong SAR Government, as the races generated HK$145 million in betting duties for the public coffers.
Especially notable was the turnover for the four international races themselves, which jumped 15% to HK$443 million this year. There is no doubt that a significant factor in this sharp increase has been our ability in the past two seasons to bring more simulcast races to our racing fans, which helps them become more familiar with the top overseas horses.
In my view, the terrific results of this year’s International Races are good not only for the Club and local racing fans, but also for Hong Kong as a whole. There is no question that horse racing is becoming a more globalised sport than ever before, and Hong Kong is ideally placed to benefit from that. I can tell you that in our 10 races on Sunday, the amount of pari-mutuel betting received by our official overseas partners, which operate separate pools on their own, reached almost 7% of our turnover for the day. If solely counted on the four international G1 events, their total turnover was even higher at over 11 per cent of our turnover in Hong Kong. I believe these figures could rise even more if we factor in the amounts bet with other non-registered overseas channels or operators that day.
That’s why I took the opportunity to ask the Government to heed our call and help us embrace the global commingling trend, so that racing fans from overseas could bet directly into the pools of the International Races, and through channeling the betting revenue from overseas to local community benefits.
I should like to take this opportunity of thanking all the Club's full-time and part-time staff, more than 14,000 in total, who worked at Sha Tin or other locations to support Sunday's big event. It is through their tremendous efforts and teamwork that we were able to make the day so successful.
It's back to domestic action for a while now, though I don't think the eight races on tonight's Happy Valley card will in any way be lacking excitement, with three of the current top 10 contenders in the 1O1O Million Challenge back in action. One of the trio is Noble Deluxe who will compete in the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong Cup. This is a very competitive Class 3 race over 1650m. The pace should be good to slow which favours horses in the front of the field but the B Course would still give horses from midfield the chance to try getting a run on the inside rail when the field comes into the short straight.
Despite starting from Gate 10, Flora Danica should be able to take the lead, with Many Gains joining him. I am of the view that 1200m is a better distance for Many Gains and therefore I prefer other who are in the front of the field, such as Flying In, Noble Deluxe and Flying Chaparral, who is working very well and has a great recent track and distance record.
Flying In has a much better draw then last time with Gate 1 when he was three-wide from his draw 12 and still finished strongly to gain second place. He is for me a good win and place chance. The current race favourite Great Renown has been a different horse since his move from trainer Alex Wong to Richard Gibson, and he is the pick of Douglas Whyte over Flying Chaparral. He would have been my first choice if he would not have drawn Gate 11, which has the risk that he could not get to the rail and may be kept wide. He has the class to win the race but it is a risky proposition. An underestimated horse is Ho Ho Life who I believe from the good draw he can sneak in for a place.
The last race is the Fu Cheong Handicap which is again a competitive Class 3 but this time over 1200m. The pace is expected to be good to slow and especially with the tricky 1200m start it favours horses on the pace and with low drawn barrier gates. Lucky Turbo from Gate 4 should be the leader. He is in very good form but is unproven over six furlongs, but has a chance to get the distance. I, however, prefer other runners such as Moneymaker, Aerosa and New Glory which are drawn Gates 2, 3 and 1 respectively. Aerosa is the choice of Douglas Whyte over his previous ride on Moneymaker but both are very good chances for me. New Glory missed the start a bit last time, but he is still a win and place chance for me. Intellectualstride could be the outsider which has the ability to upset the favourites, especially when you consider his last start when he finished second after being checked at the 300m, held up between in the critical phase of the race but still finished strongly.
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