I’m sure all racing fans have been eagerly anticipating today as the new racing season will commence at Sha Tin Racecourse this afternoon. I’m already at the racecourse and will shortly be going to the paddock to attend the season opening ceremony. It’s a delight to see so many racing fans returning here with enthusiasm, and I wish them best of luck at the start of what will be another exciting season.
With the new season upon us, now is a good time to tell you a little bit about what the Club is doing to make your experiences at the racecourse as enjoyable as possible. The Club is determined to continue to invest in racecourse hardware, so as to ensure a sustainable future for our racing development and safeguard our contributions to the community. Similar to what we did in the past few seasons, we have wasted no time during the summer and have undertaken various renovations and upgrading projects in several areas of our racecourse venues as entailed in the Phase II of our Racecourse Master Plan. Over the past 12 months, the total amount of investments we made on these racecourse facilities improvement projects at Sha Tin and Happy Valley was close to HK$700 million.
Although the short time available for our summer renovation work was further shortened by the typhoons that affected Hong Kong, stretching our working team to their limits, I’m pleased that the majority of these facilities upgrades have been completed. They are now ready to bring new racecourse experiences to different segments of our customers for today’s season opener.
We are endeavouring to improve the overall racing experiences of our customers, regardless of whether they are Owners, Club Members or ordinary racing fans. Owners and Members can today explore our high-quality, stylish spaces in our newly-refurbished loges and coffee shop here at Sha Tin. Ordinary racing fans can also visit our newly refurbished betting hall located on the second floor in Grandstand I, which we have converted into a vibrant contemporary setting, with big screen race imagery and information display available for all patrons. We are committed to giving our customers an enhanced level of convenience and comfort, incorporating advanced technology to provide racing information in an engaging way.
Apart from these newly refurbished racecourse venues, racing fans can also enjoy greater flexibility in their betting options. In the new season, customers can have a minimum bet of HK$1 when the total amount of their Flexi Bet ticket reaches HK$100 or above. Hopefully the measure will offer them greater scope to succeed in their betting and I’m pleased to learn that there are already some supportive comments suggesting it is likely to benefit ordinary racing fans.
When you study the races today, perhaps you can pay some attention to the booked rides of two new jockeys – Club Jockey Richard Fourie from South Africa and local apprentice Dicky Lui – as both of them will be making their Hong Kong debut this afternoon. In particular, new Club Jockey Fourie showed that he’s already in winning form when sneaking through in the final metres to win the annual Jockeys’ Sprint at the Pre-season Carnival last Saturday, which was a popular and fun event. It was certainly a great start to his Hong Kong career! Dicky is the latest apprentice from the Club’s successful Apprentice Jockeys’ School to join the weighing room here and I wish him well. I hope you will all give Richard and Dicky your usual strong support.
It’s also pleasing to see seven of our 10 races today being full fields. Although in the day’s feature race – the HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup – we have only seven runners taking part, this Class 1 event has attracted some smart candidates and is a competitive contest. It is expected to be run on a good pace and with the small field, no runner should have to run too wide early in the race. Strong leader Arrived Ahead is likely to take up his usual role but could come under pressure from Crown Witness. Able Speed and Flying Blue can be well placed behind the leaders. Arrived Ahead is working well and trialed convincingly under a nice hold and is the horse to beat in this Cup event. Able Speed seems to be fit enough to run a good race and Cerise Cherry's fitness has improved for a place chance.
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