Kung Hei Fat Choy! At the beginning of the Year of the Snake, I wish you all health, prosperity and every success in the coming year. I know that in Chinese tradition family gathering is an important element of the Lunar New Year celebration. I’m sure many of you have soaked up the festive mood, and have already had some enjoyable time together with your families and friends over the past few days. 
Some of my Club colleagues, however, apart from accompanying with their families, might have to arrange their schedules and spare some time returning to their workplaces for duties during the holidays. To name a few, some of our stables assistants returned to the stables as usual to carry out their usual duties of horse feeding and cleaning. Also, at Sha Tin our racing department colleagues were on duty for normal tracks maintenance and track work operations, while many others from the marketing division have also been at the racecourse today for the dress rehearsal of various on-course performances tomorrow. Some others working in the broadcasting services division have had a very busy time in the Club’s studios working on the production of a couple of pre-race TV programmes for tomorrow’s races. And for sure, thousands of our betting division colleagues – including those in Telebet centres and Off-Course Betting Branches – have continued to be as committed as ever in providing betting services to our customers during the holidays.
These Club team members have, as ever, shown great professionalism and I must take this chance to offer my great thanks for their hard work, commitment and dedication to their jobs. Without their immense and selfless contributions it would be difficult for the Club to achieve its current status as one of the world leaders in the global racing industry, as well as maintaining the robust growth in our racing business so far this season.
Tomorrow we will be hosting the Lunar New Year race day at Sha Tin, which is one of our racing fans’ most popular race meetings of the season. In recent years the Night Parade and CNY Fireworks at Victoria Harbour have been the annual highlights in the first two days of the Lunar New Year festival. For the third day the focus naturally goes to our race meeting at Sha Tin. As well as our staunch racing fans, many casual race goers who do not attend race meetings quite as often also come along to the track to enjoy the sensational new year atmosphere. They do this by participating in various on-course events, as well as of course by getting involved in our exciting races as they try to make a lucky start to the year.
Again tomorrow we will cater to all of you with various entertaining events and performances. Apart from the popular peach blossom tree feng shui formation settings, and the gold ornament exhibition and display on course, you can also purchase special themed collectible merchandise exclusively available in the racecourse tomorrow. We will also stage the day’s always-popular opening show at the Parade Ring, featuring famous local artists and also troupe performances. So please make sure you come early before the show starts at 11am. I hope you will have a great time and I’ll see you at the racecourse tomorrow.
The 11 races on the card appear to be equally exciting. And in the day’s focus race, the Chinese New Year Cup, which is run as a Class 1 handicap for horses rated between 110 and 85. The pace is expected to be good to fast which should give horses coming from off the pace a better chance to perform to their best, and it will make it more difficult for front runners to dominate from the start to the finish. Penglai Xianzi should make good use of his rail draw to take up his usual role, with Good Words or Gift Is Gift sharing the lead or sitting just off the pace. Keen Marie, New Vision, Flash Knight and Beauty Flash can be well placed with Majestic Falcon, Fair Trade, Fat Choy Oohlala and Talley Close being positioned behind midfield. Fun Rider and Amigo who both are drawn wide may be taken back. Penglai Xianzi is a Sha Tin 1400m specialist and is still a place chance for me in this race, but he will get some pressure early on and I prefer other horses more, especially Flash Knight. He was unlucky last time and was taken back on from Gate 14, could not get a clear run till late in the straight and dashed home well in 22.40 seconds for the last two furlongs. His work is good, and from his good position and Douglas Whyte as rider, he is my first choice in this race. Fat Choy Oohlala is a horse who always gives his best and is a win and place chance for me. Majestic Falcon comes back from a little break and can run very good last sectionals and is another Moore runner with at least a place chance. Fair Trade is a horse which struggles with soundness issues and cannot be trained up to his full potential due to this problem. But he seems to be able to keep fit from his last run and is an outside chance. The same applies to Voile Rouge who can run well after a quick back up from last Wednesday over 1000m at Happy Valley.
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