At the Hong Kong Reunification Raceday last Sunday, close to 28,000 people joined us at the racecourse and I have to say, the atmosphere was great. I was delighted that the meeting was not affected by the tropical storm that swept through the day before and was generally held in fine weather, which offered a perfect setting and environment for our racegoers to enjoy the on-course racing experience.
Among the attendees were hundreds of guests that we invited from different walks of life to join us in celebrating the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR. We arranged a host of performances and programmes for the guests and racegoers at the public enclosure, and I was pleased to see that many of them found it a very enjoyable day.
We also took the opportunity during the day to introduce to our guests our various commitments in the wider community, giving them a chance to understand more about the Club’s dedication and immense contributions to Hong Kong and its people over the years, and especially over the past 15 years since the handover. I was happy that most of our guests recognised the Club’s important role to Hong Kong society. Hopefully we will have the chance to meet them again in the racecourse in the very near future.
Among our numerous community contributions, quite a significant number of programmes are involved in assisting young people’s development and local sports development. We recently entered into partnership with Manchester United Football Club for the commencement of the HKJC Elite Youth Football Training Camp project, offering dozens of local elite young footballers the chance to receive professional training for the next three years. Today we will be taking a step further as we have decided to pledge another HK$6.6 million of donation to launch the Jockey Club Youth Football Development Programme. Being an extension of the Club-funded summer programme now currently under way, this new programme will offer an all-year-round and district-wide training scheme for a total of 2,700 youth players, so that they can receive systematic football training in their own districts for the next three years.
What makes this venture even more special, is that this will be the first time that these systematic football training programmes will be provided for female players, which we hope will drive and motivate women’s football development here in Hong Kong. Given our small population in the city, perhaps it will be a bit difficult for us to look for our very own Lionel Messi, or outstanding women footballers such as Birgit Prinz of Germany or Homare Sawa of Japan. But that is not saying that Hong Kong cannot produce top-class football talent, of course we can. My hope is that the dedication and support given by the Club towards football development can help Hong Kong to explore and discover even more young talents and provide those dedicated youth footballers with systematic training that will develop their skills.
We need only look at Spain and their recent Euro victory to see how commitment to positive youth development reaps great rewards and produces footballers with not only fine technical ability but also a sporting approach, and a dedication to improvement both individually and as a team. That’s why I hope that this latest programme, along with other football development initiatives we announced in recent months, will be helpful and beneficial to local football development in the coming years.
Let’s turn our focus back from football to racing, as we’ve arranged another exciting night meeting at Happy Valley this evening. Among the eight-race card, the Hing Man Handicap is a very competitive Class 1 event over 1200m, with many good chances in the race. The expected pace should be good with Arrived Ahead from Gate 2 in the lead. Both Horse Galore out of Gate 8 and Best Eleven out of Gate 9 will go forward, too. Legendary Dragon who is working well and drawn in 10, may find cover behind the pace. But he is at risk of being trapped wide, along with Turbo King and Flying Colours. Despite that, Legendary Dragon and Turbo King are still with nice place chances for me, but I prefer more on Arrived Ahead as he is working very well and has a better position in the race. Talley Close should go close too and is the main danger to Arrived Ahead.
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