Apart from working on racing matters, I've attended a few events this week related to other aspects of the Club's support for the community. One was the FEI Children’s International Classics Final 2011 being held at our Beas River Country Club from Tuesday until today. This is the first time this international jumping event, which carries the official sanction of the International Equestrian Federation, has been held in Hong Kong. It features 20 junior riders from 14 countries and regions, including three from Hong Kong.
It's a great honour for the Club to be invited to co-organise this event with the Hong Kong Equestrian Federation. Besides providing the competition venue and facilities at Beas River, as well as veterinary care and other professional supporting services, we've made more than 20 retired racehorses available for use as competition horses. This is in line with our long-time commitment to developing local equestrian sport, which includes a HK$50 million donation back in 2008 to establish the Hong Kong Jockey Club Equestrian Team and Junior Equestrian Team.
All the participating riders this week are between 12 and 14. The three young riders representing Hong Kong are Michelle Li, Cheyenne Held and Arianna Ladd. Michelle trains regularly at our Tuen Mun Public Riding School under the Club’s instructors, while Cheyenne and Arianna have both been given special training by the Club for this event. It will give them the chance of exposure to high-quality international competition on home ground, which we hope will be fruitful to their future development.
In recent years, more and more local children have signed up to learn horse riding at our three public riding schools in Tuen Mun, Lei Yue Mun Park and Pok Fu Lam, especially since Hong Kong staged the equestrian events of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which created a surge of popularity in the sport. We're encouraged that Hong Kong is now developing some very promising home-grown equestrian talent.
There’s another entertainment destination in the city that has been consistently popular among local children, as well as adults and overseas visitors, since 1977. You've probably guessed that I'm talking about Ocean Park, which I revisited on Tuesday for a special ceremony to celebrate the Park’s 35th anniversary.
The Jockey Club has a very long-standing relationship with Ocean Park, in fact it is almost like a baby that we've nurtured. Back in the early 1970s, the Club and the Government shared the same vision to create an entertainment park for the people of Hong Kong. The Club then donated over HK$400 million through our Charities Trust for its construction, a huge sum at the time. We even managed the Park on Government's behalf in the early stages, and later provided a further HK$200 million endowment for its continued operation. A number of further donations for special projects were made over the years, making the total donations to support the Park to over HK$730 million.
Since those early days, Ocean Park has developed into one of the most popular and successful marine theme parks in the world, and a "must see" attraction for most visitors to Hong Kong. Millions of local families have visited the park to enjoy its rides and attractions, along with the performances of its killer whale, dolphins and sea lions. Also very popular now is the HKJC Giant Panda Habitat opened in 1999, home to the lovable An An and Jia Jia, and more recently Ying Ying and Le Le. Looking back, with this great partnership with the Ocean Park, I can proudly say we have helped improving the quality of life of HK people.
Like the Club, the Park is facing strong competition nowadays from other theme parks in the region. I am pleased to know that the Park will be bringing a number of new attractions into operation in the next few months, and is also planning new visitor facilities including hotels, in order to remain competitive and continue to prosper in the future. We at the Club share the Park's vision and will help where we can to take it to new heights.
Putting our focus back on to racing, a crop of top local sprinters will be bidding to take their racing careers to new heights in our first local Group 1 event in 2012 at Sha Tin Racecourse tomorrow. The Kent & Curwen Centenary Sprint Cup, the first leg of the HK Speed Series, is run as a Group 1 race over 1000m.The pace is expected to be good to slow and speedster Blaze King needs to go fast from Gate 2 to get across to the outside rail. At Moment In Time can share the lead and Little Bridge and Lucky Nine should find cover just off the speed with Final Answer and Joy And Fun well placed. Sacred Kingdom is likely to be positioned behind midfield and would have to find a passage through traffic in front of him. One big question mark for me is the weather because if it rains significantly as predicted most of the horses have no record on a soft track. Little Bridge is working very well, and, even in the case of a softer track, has performed well - for me, he is the horse to beat. Lucky Nine could find the 1000m a little bit on the short side, especially if the pace is not fast, but he still rates a place chance. Sacred Kingdom has a terrific course and distance record which, combined with his good track work, gives him a place chance. For Joy And Fun the distance is likely to prove too short, which points to Let Me Fight, who was placed on yielding ground, as another place chance.
The Southwell Handicap is a Class 2 over 1600m with an expected slow pace due to no strong leader in the race. Dragon Fighter should be able to lead and is working well, and with Douglas Whyte returning from a suspension on board, he has a good place chance for me. Helene Spirit is working very well also and is expected to be positioned in midfield. He has won on good to soft ground before and is my pick for this race. Semos, who can run very fast last sectionals, will be disadvantage by the expected slow pace but is still a place chance for me and has performed well on good to soft tracks. Voile Rouge is one horse who has run with success on a yielding track and is an interesting outsider.
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