It is always a great pleasure to see famous sporting figures enjoying a happy and fulfilled life in retirement. As I mentioned in my last blog, I recently had the honour, along with over 60 young footballers, of meeting the legendary Manchester United and England player Sir Bobby Charlton, when he visited the Jockey Club Elite Youth Football Camp as a special guest at the end of last month. Sir Bobby has remained involved in football as a long-standing Director of Manchester United and he has clearly maintained much of his skill, as was evident when he took a few penalty kicks in front of the aspiring youngsters.
In the same vein, last week I saw some really good news about another retired sporting hero, namely champion Hong Kong racehorse Silent Witness, who at the peak of his career was the best sprinter in the world. He is now living near Melbourne in Australia, at Living Legends, a special home for some of the great horses of our sport who have now retired, which allows the public to visit and pay homage to their equine heros. This not only gives these old warriors a place to live out their retirement in peace and comfort, but it also continues to promote horse racing in a really positive way by giving fans the chance to visit and interact with some of the best horses ever to grace our sport.
Recently, Silent Witness’ trainer Tony Cruz was at Living Legends to meet his old friend and there are a number of photographs on the Facebook page of Living Legends which capture the reunion. It is evident from these pictures, some of which are shown below, featuring the horse, Tony and his wife Paulene that Silent Witness is in great form and good health. For those of you who use Facebook, just search for livinglegendsau.
As most Hong Kong racing fans know, Tony is a two-time champion trainer who also won the champion jockey title in Hong Kong six times during his riding career. Last season he was pipped to a third champion trainer title in the very last race of the season. So this really was an occasion when two great champions and old pals had a chance to renew their friendship.
On Saturday, I know some racing fans were closely following Alvin Ng’s attempt to defend his title in the fifth Asian Young Guns Challenge in Te Rapa Racecourse in Hamilton, New Zealand. Alvin rode extremely well, but the luck wasn’t with him this year as he finished 8th over the three race series. Nevertheless, he represented Hong Kong with great credit and I am sure he is looking forward to another successful season here.
Other than the racing action in New Zealand, this weekend sees the start of the soccer season in the UK and Spain with the English Premier League and Spanish D1 kicking off on Saturday and Sunday respectively. As you may know, football is one of my great passions and I am looking forward to seeing how the new Messi/Neymar combination gels for the outstanding Barcelona this season. Equally. It will be fascinating to see how Manchester United perform under a new manager, as Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement after almost 27 years means that David Moyes takes charge in an attempt to continue the remarkable success of the world’s biggest club. I am not going to make too many predictions at this stage, but from what I saw in Hong Kong in July, don’t be surprised to see Sir Bobby Charlton coming on as a substitute to take a penalty!
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Photos courtesy of Living Legends
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