Every footballer enjoys playing on perfect pitch conditions. Elite football clubs go to great lengths to ensure their stars play on optimum surfaces at the world’s great stadia like the Camp Nou and the Bernabeu, to name but two. I know that Arsenal invested a large sum in state-of-the-art heat lamps some years ago to ensure good grass growth at Emirates Stadium during the dull London winter.
Similarly, I believe every racehorse and every jockey enjoys galloping or riding on ideal track conditions in races. In this aspect, our colleagues in the Tracks Department have done lots of work behind the scenes and have done some excellent work in maintaining ideal track status, which supports the provision of our world class racing product to our racing public and customers.
Their great efforts are highlighted by what I saw while leaving the racecourse after Happy Valley races last Sunday. When I left, at about 8.30pm that night, our Tracks Department colleagues at Happy Valley stayed on the track for grass-cutting work, as well as putting the rails in position in preparation for the midweek race meeting tonight.
What they had done was to ensure the Valley track is in excellent condition tonight. If we had ignored the bad weather forecast provided by the Observatory and didn’t cut the grass on Sunday night, our colleagues would have had no chance to do it under the unstable weather condition or heavy rain of the past two days. I know some of you might wonder why we couldn’t do the same job under rain. It’s actually rather simple: it is impossible to mow grass lying down flat in the wet. The mower will also create excessive wear marks and compaction of the turf surface. Added to that, the rainy environment might also increase the chances of the cut grass being infected and wiped out by turfgrass diseases, which would end up adversely affecting the overall quality and condition of the turf track.
Given the fact that our Tracks Department colleagues worked from early on Sunday, continued through the races and stayed behind well after 9pm that evening for the track preparation work on Wednesday, I was really impressed and would like to praise and give my credit to them for their hard work and contributions.
Currently, there are about 100 people working in our Tracks Department team. Under the management of our Tracks Executive Manager Pako Ip, they are mainly responsible for the track maintenance work at Sha Tin and Happy Valley, as well as landscaping the racecourses. Pako has been with the Club for more than 15 years and he has accumulated a wealth of experience on track management, as well as a great understanding of our turf and all-weather tracks at Sha Tin and Happy Valley.
Pako has a relatively young management team, as his aides Jackson, John and Ray are all very young, but they have taken turf management programmes in Australia and attained certified qualifications in lawn care in the US. In recent years they have also undertaken overseas visits to countries like Australia, Singapore and Japan, so as to understand more about other clubs’ tracks management experiences and the ways in which they care for their tracks. We have provided plenty of resources in grooming these young tracks management professionals over the years, and I have to say I’m very pleased with their efforts and progress. They, along with their Tracks Department colleagues, are vital members in the Club team who will play important roles in maintaining the world-class racing venues at Sha Tin and Happy Valley in the years to come.
With the great efforts made by our Tracks Department, we can ensure to the very best of our ability that our Valley track will not be hugely affected by the thunderstorm and considerable rainfall of the past two days, and our meeting will be held as usual tonight. But as you would expect, the track condition will have been affected by so much rainfall and will be riding on the soft side. So, when you are studying the races, you may wish to pay extra attention to those runners who have proven records and decent race performances under rain-affected conditions.
Among the eight races on the card, the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union Cup is run as a Class 1 handicap over 2200m and has attracted only a field of 10, but all horses are of high calibre and potential. The pace is expected to be good due to the fact that horses like Super Pistachio, Happy Guys and even Liberator will likely be going forward. The pace in the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby last month was too slow, which came against runners including Dominant who finished 8th at 3 lengths behind the winner, and Same World who was a fast finishing second in the same race. Both of them are working very well and should have no problem with the extra distance when referring to their pedigree. Even they haven’t been at the Valley for a race or trial before, they should have the class to dominate the race. With both coming from the back of the field, they are for me the horses to beat in this race.
There may be a little question mark when you look at the pedigree of another Derby runner Liberator, who has so far performed well over 1800m. After his disappointing race in the Derby when he did not go forward, he performed well in his last start at the Valley, finishing runner-up behind the improving Helene Spirit. That’s why he remains to be a place chance for me tonight.
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