Though we are now in the summer weeks, there is no shortage of horse racing and football action either overseas or in Hong Kong. Last weekend the focus of European racing was on Ascot Racecourse in the UK, which hosted one of the most important summer-time G1s in Europe - the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The result pleased me a lot, as the race was won by Novellist from Germany. This four-year-old ran an extremely impressive race under Johnny Murtagh, winning the 2400m event by five lengths in a course record time.
Following the success of another top German runner in last year's race, prolific mare Danedream, the victory of Novellist extended the strong Teutonic presence in this event. These two top horses, along with Prix Ganay winner Pastorius, have been the flagbearers of German racing over the past year, showing to the world that the top German-trained horses possess comparable high quality, especially in the stamina races, to their French, British or Irish counterparts.
Following his King George success, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October will be the next natural target for Novellist. I understand his connections also plan to run him in another major race in Germany in September, so that will be a good marker to watch for those of you trying to identify this year's Arc winner.
On the same evening that Novellist prevailed at Ascot, Manchester City defeated Sunderland to be crowned winners of the Barclays Asia Trophy in Hong Kong. And two days later on Monday, their Manchester rivals United played an exhibition match against local side Kitchee, winning an entertaining game 5-2.
But much public focus had been on the pitch condition of Hong Kong Stadium, which was far from satisfactory as shown in the five matches over the past week. In this regard, the Club is willing to contribute and give our views to the Government to see how the pitch condition in the stadium can be improved. In fact, with our experience to maintain the turf tracks in both racecourses in good condition over the years, we have from time to time exchanges with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department on the matter. We are ready to help.
For United, apart from their match on Monday, a few famous former players in their delegation also took time to meet the 66 young footballers currently participating in our Jockey Club Elite Youth Football Camp earlier that morning. This is a programme funded by the Club in collaboration with the Manchester United Soccer School. It’s now in its second year and it aimed at giving some of Hong Kong's most promising young players the benefit of top professional training. The two best performers will have the chance to join a further two-week training programme at United's own Academy in the UK.
Guest of honour at the event was the legendary United and England player Sir Bobby Charlton, who was joined by fellow former United players Denis Irwin and Quinton Fortune. All these three stars offered their guidance and advice to our young local stars of the future. I’m a big fan of Sir Bobby and although he’s now 75, he still demonstrated some great footwork and precision when taking a few penalty kicks in front of our youngsters. It’s great to have such a football legend and World Cup winner here for the programme and I'm sure that the participants found his advice very inspirational and useful.
Youth training is important in every sport, and programmes like this are very beneficial in identifying potential young talents and giving them a good foundation. This is equally true of our Racing Trainee Development Programme, for which we are currently in the last week of recruitment for this year. It gives young people with dedication and a love of animals the chance to receive race riding training and try out several different types of career in the industry. So far we have received some satisfactory responses as hundreds of applications have been in already. The recruitment period will end on Friday, so those of you who are interested, please be sure to get your applications in before then.
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