It is no secret to anyone who knows me or who reads this blog that I love football, so you can imagine how pleased I was on Friday night when my home country, Germany, sealed a place in the World Cup Finals in Brazil next summer. The German team was always in control against the Republic of Ireland and after Sami Khedira opened the scoring early, the result was never really in doubt. Joachim Lowe’s men went on to win convincingly, 3-0.
The World Cup is one of world sport’s biggest events and I’m sure next year’s tournament in Rio will be as exciting as we all anticipate. Great sporting events always have that special buzz about them and right now that anticipation is already beginning to build towards Hong Kong’s annual world sports event, the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races.
The big races may be two months away but last week’s release of the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings brought them sharply into focus. For the first time this year, connections of the overall top three horses (currently Black Caviar, Treve and Wise Dan) will be honoured at a glittering Gala Dinner and awards ceremony here in Hong Kong on 6 December, during the week of our LONGINES HKIR. That is sure to be a memorable occasion.
Four of Hong Kong’s star horses made that Top 50 list. Our Horse of the Year, Military Attack, ranks equal 11th on the list and is currently rated the best turf runner in the world over distances from 1900m to 2100m after his G1 wins in the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup and Singapore International Airlines Cup. John Moore’s stable star will be aiming for the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup at December’s HKIR and I was pleased to see that he warmed up nicely in a 1000m turf barrier trial last week. Like you, I’m looking forward to seeing his planned debut this season in the Oriental Watch Sha Tin Trophy on 27 October.
Also equal 11th is Ambitious Dragon, winner of last year’s G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile, while Lucky Nine and Glorious Days were both equal 40th. Achieving four horses in the Top 50 is a sign of the good health of the sport at the elite level here in Hong Kong, given that our horse population is relatively small at around 1,200. That compares very favourably to somewhere like the UK, which has seven horses in the Top 50 from a pool of about 10,800, while the USA has 11 from a large pool of about 57,000 horses.
With elite racing in mind, this weekend brings two major international race days on opposite sides of the world, both of which we will simulcast. While I would love to attend both, I cannot be in two places at once so rather than head to Australia for the Caulfield Cup, I will fly to England for British Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday, and perhaps some of the star horses I see in action there will head to Hong Kong in December. I will be back in time for the Happy Valley day meeting on Sunday.
But before that, I also want to take this opportunity to reflect on last Saturday's racing. We at the Club are aware that some of the racing public thought that Military Secret should not have been allowed to take part in the race following his behaviour before the start and I can understand their frustration given that he ran below expectations.
Here in Hong Kong we follow the same practices as in most major racing nations and in such situations as occurred on Saturday, the first consideration is that the horse is sound. The veterinarian down at the start is looking out for the horse’s wellbeing and on this occasion the vet, having examined the horse, regarded it physically sound and the jockey was comfortable to ride him. The issue that has been raised about the horse’s mental state is one that requires further consideration and in this regard, I share fans' views that Military Secret was mentally agitated at that time and should not have started due to his mental state. Having said this, I can assure you that the Racing Management is looking at this incident very closely with a view to finding a way to improve the process of reaching a decision as to whether a horse should run or not, to ensure that our racing fans have the confidence that we are fair and do not have a false perception that the decision is based on commercial grounds.
Turning our attention to tonight’s meeting at Sha Tin, we have an exclusively all-weather card because, as usual at this time of year, our track staff is currently working to transition the Sha Tin turf from summer to winter grass ready for the months ahead.
There are some interesting runners on show. The finale of today’s meeting, Choi Wan Handicap, is a Class 2 over 1200m on the All Weather surface, which has attracted some very good and proven surface specialists. New Glory and Bundle Of Love are the probable leaders with Bobo Dragon and Celestial Century shadowing them. As a result the pace should be good and Slick Bullet and Rumba King should be well placed behind the four leaders.
Bundle Of Love, Bobo Dragon, Rumba King and Slick Bullet are working well. With the exception of Bobo Dragon they have all won on the All Weather surface, but I still have Bobo Dragon as my best chance to win the race. He was not fully fit last time and has improved from his last outing. Furthermore, he is working well on the All Weather and with his pedigree being by Minardi out of an End Sweep mare, his breeding suggests that he has no issues with the All Weather surface. Out of the other three I see Slick Bullet as his main rival in this sprint.
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