Last Saturday Lucky Nine made his second appearance in Australia in the G1 VRC Sprint Classic. We all had great expectations after his good run in the Manikato Stakes, and our hero started as the race favourite in both Australia and our simulcast pool in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, he ran a below-par race to finish 6th and I’m sure you all were as disappointed as I was and his connections were. Perhaps this proves that he’s not best suited by straight courses and maybe he didn’t like being towards the front with no cover, or perhaps he just did not feel at his best on the day. Anyway, he arrived safely back in Hong Kong on Monday night to start his preparation for the LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint next month.
When he returns to racing around the bend, I think Lucky Nine should have a better chance to find cover in the race and hopefully our champion sprinter can rebound from this defeat. I hope that he will come back in good form from his overseas campaign, recover quickly and perform to his best, in which case he looks sure to be a major contender again next month. You may remember that he bounced back for an unlucky run in Japan two years ago to win the Hong Kong Sprint, but this time he has just about four weeks to get back to his best. Like all Hong Kong racing fans, I hope to see him in top form on 8 December.
Turning to football, a top team recently rebounded from an early season dip. Manchester United snatched its third consecutive league victory over the weekend thanks to a fine header from Robin Van Persie that gave the Red Devils a 1-0 win in their crunch encounter against Premier League leaders Arsenal. The victory ensured an upbeat feeling for United fans around the world as the league enters a two-week international break. As any football fan knows, such a win is a massive boost, especially as in this case other title contenders such as Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea all lost ground with poor results last weekend.
I’m sure many of you will know that United has already established its Asian office in Hong Kong, its first outside the UK. This move emphasises the great importance Manchester United places on Hong Kong and Asia. Apart from football marketing work for millions of United fans in the region, United is also very much engaged in other aspects, including a collaboration with the Club for the Jockey Club Elite Youth Football Camp that has offered elite local young footballers the chance to receive professional football training over the past two summers. On top of that, last Friday we announced an extended collaboration between the Jockey Club and United as together we launched the Jockey Club Youth Football Fitness Assessment and Jockey Club School Football Development Scheme.
With the modern game getting increasingly physical and tactical, good fitness is essential and helps ensure players perform at their optimum for the entire match. Our aims are to help local coaches better understand the athletic potential of their young players and prescribe optimal training for them, and to bring international football coaching standard and professional guidance from Manchester United to Hong Kong schools. Under the Jockey Club Youth Football Fitness Assessment, a football specific fitness assessment under the MU regime is being introduced to establish effective data of the local youth football players for performance analysis and training optimization. This provided an opportunity for a total of 360 young footballers to go through a series of football capability assessments.
For the Club’s part, we have contributed over HK$170 million towards local football development over the past few years, but it’s not just about donating money. We want to take a leading role in this project, to combine local and overseas expertise to, for the first time, offer a total approach to the development of local football talents. And more importantly, through these visionary programmes, help advancing the physical, social and mental developments of our young generation, building leadership ability that will benefit them throughout life, endowing them with Hong Kong’s renowned “can do” spirit.
We look forward to seeing these programmes with fruitful results. Now let me get back to racing and our focus this week will be on the three Jockey Club races on Sunday, as many of our top gallopers will feature in these G2 events as their stepping stone to the LONGINES HKIR next month. By the way, we just unveiled the top jockeys who will participate in the LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship on 4 December. I think you will be excited by which world-class riders will be coming to show off their riding skills at Happy Valley this year.
But before then, our attention at Happy Valley tonight goes to another Fashion Styles the Valley race meeting, along with eight exciting races. On the race card, I will be paying extra attention on the Swiftlet Handicap, which is run as a Class 2 over 1000m. California Bounty under top weight from Gate 9 will have to work early to get across to lead, or at least to share the lead with Ensemble coming from Gate 5. London China Town, Charity Spirit and Touch Go will compete for forward spots, resulting in a good or even fast pace which will help horses coming from midfield. London China Town is working very well after his last win over course and distance and is at least a place chance. My favourite is Ensemble coming from the in-form John Size Stable, and with Joao Moreira on board. The horse has a very good race form and maintained his good work. For other runners, both California Bounty and Windicator Star are my other chance for a place.
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