After Bayern Munich outplayed Barcelona, another German outfit, Borussia Dortmund, produced a stunner of their own as they completed a 4-1 rout against Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final first leg on Wednesday. As a German, it’s stupendous to see two German teams put a combined eight goals past those two great Spanish teams and I’m really proud of their achievements. While Marco Reus played a nice match, most media have focused on the virtuoso performance of Polish striker Robert Lewandowski, who, for the first time in his professional career, scored all four goals and helped Dortmund to win the match.
Now both Bayern and Dortmund will be heading to Spain for the second leg, with huge leading advantages in the bag. Should both of them win the tie it would be the second ever all-German final in Europe’s top club competitions, with the only other time being 1980. It’s a great prospect and I’ll see how these two Bundesliga teams perform next week.
Back in Hong Kong, we currently have some racehorses of international standing competing in the APQEII Cup tomorrow. It’s definitely pleasing to have the chance to meet with some good friends from overseas again. It’s pleasing that Hong Kong racing continues to attract support from the cream of overseas horsemen who are familiar names to us here as well as around the world. Among those are trainers Saeed bin Suroor and Mike de Kock, the Hirai family from Japan and connections of Treasure Beach, while most of them obtained multiple successes previously in our international races in Hong Kong.
This time their runners, such as Sajjhaa, Eishin Flash and Igugu, are in strong and solid form coming to this race. They will face off against the home team led by reigning Horse of the Year Ambitious Dragon and two-time HK Cup winner California Memory, I believe it will be a dynamite contest and a race that shouldn’t be missed by local racing fans.
Apart from the main race, don’t forget that we will also have 11 high-class sprinters competing for the HKG2 Sprint Cup. This will be a good prelude for a few runners in the field who have entered for upcoming overseas races as it will help connections to decide on their possible adventures aboard. I’ll be interested to see if they can deliver strong performances.
I’ve spent some time in analysing the APQEII Cup and I think this year’s field is one of the strongest we have had. It will be a real test for the Hong Kong horses as they will be facing a strong opposition. The pace is expected to be slow because there is no real leader in the field, with low drawn horses like Crackerjack and Military Attack going forward to secure good places in the running. Treasure Beach is likely to go forward to overcome his draw. Irian and Sajjhaa should get positioned in midfield with Akeed Mofeed and California Memory. Igugu, Zaidan and Eishin Flash are at risk to be forced to run wide in midfield, with Wrath Of Fire, Ashkiyr and Thumbs Up have to come from the back which is difficult in a slowly run race.
Ambitious Dragon has a good draw which should enable him to travel outside of horses when going for a run in the straight. He’s working well and has a good chance to win the race. Military Attack is in great form and should get the run of the race and is a win and place chance for me. Eishin Flash is a real threat to the HK horses but is a little bit handicapped by the draw. Having said that, his class should enable him to get a place finish. Even not yet proven in an open Group 1 in Hong Kong, Akeed Mofeed has further improved after his Derby win and is a place chance for me.
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