In my blog a fortnight ago I mentioned that some of our racehorses take up a second career as lead horses here in Hong Kong, following their retirement from racing. In fact it has become more common in recent years for local owners to choose to export their horses overseas to enjoy their retirement.
New Zealand is one of the most popular destinations for our retired racehorses. In each of the past three years about 80 of our retired horses have relocated there. Last week I made a trip down to New Zealand and had a busy few days of meetings with various senior officials from the racing and breeding industries there – people with whom we have enjoyed very good relationships for a long time. Special thanks should be given to the New Zealand Consul-General in Hong Kong Mr Robert Kaiwai and his team who organised this very fruitful trip for us.
One of the most important aspects of the business trip was our discussions regarding the possibility of sending more retired racehorses from Hong Kong to New Zealand for retraining and rehoming. One of the issues relating to such horse exportation for retirement that needs to be resolved is the strict quarantine requirements imposed by the health and agricultural authorities in New Zealand. Given Hong Kong’s proven record of equine disease control, we are pleased that our discussion could possibly result in the easing of certain restrictions for exporting local retired horses to horse farms in New Zealand. Also, we talked about expanding the quarantine facilities in Auckland for import of Hong Kong retired horses.
For me, New Zealand is a beautiful country and must be one of the best places in the world for a retired horse to have an enjoyable retirement life. And if we get that green light on the topics relating to quarantine facilities and protocol, not only would it allow us to find more suitable homes for retired racehorses from Hong Kong, but also help free up some space in our local stable facilities. That would in turn enable us to bring in horses that have been purchased by HK owners to race here a little bit earlier, as there is always a “waiting list” for suitable space for the next generation of Hong Kong’s racing stars.
Talking about racing stars, during this trip, I took the chance to visit the Ascot Farm, home of our Hong Kong legend Fairy King Prawn, an old champion for whom I’m sure many of you have a great affection and fond memories. He moved to New Zealand almost three years ago, and the gelding, now at the ripe old age of 19, still looks in great form and is clearly enjoying every moment of his retirement life in such a pleasant environment.
Coincidentally, as one of the past winners of the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, we have named one of the handicap races after Fairy King Prawn at the Chairman’s Sprint Prize day this Sunday. Let’s see which horse will turn out to be the winner of that event.
Before then we will have a night meeting at Happy Valley this evening, and the focus will be on the 1O1O Million Challenge, as including tonight, there are only four Valley race meetings remaining before the series’ finale night on 5 March. Rainbow Fighter is the only horse in the Top 10 of the Million Challenge leaderboard to be running tonight. He will be contesting the Tin Lok Handicap, a Class 3 over 1200m. The pace is expected to be good to slow. Though there is no definite leader, at least five of the runners in the field usually race handy, and the pressure they put on each other should generate a good-to-slow tempo. Tango Fire needs to push early to get across from Gate 10 and is the most likely leader, probably with Ovett. Sichuan Vigour and possibly Super Plus may also share the lead or competing for good spots just off the pace. The widely drawn Step Faster is likely to be taken back.
Ovett is working very well and with Joao Moreira on board he is my first choice, with Step Faster who will have to come from the back with a strong run being his main opponent. Rainbow Fighter is a win and place chance and I am expecting a good performance for a place from Both Sure.
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