The two-day Christmas holiday has come to an end, and I’m sure most of you will have enjoyed some great times with your loved ones and friends during the festivities. I took the chance to take a short trip away earlier this week, so I did not spend the Christmas time in Hong Kong this year. Although I was away from home, I must say I enjoyed it as much as many of you did. It was great to have the chance to “recharge my batteries”.
This season we do not have any race meeting during the Christmas holidays, which gives all of us, fans and those of us working in racing, the chance to take a short break. It also gives our super fans some extra time to indulge in their other favourite sports. Football is of course the top choice of all as although major football leagues in Europe such as the Bundesliga in Germany and La Liga in Spain entered their winter spell, the English Premier League is still firing on all cylinders during the festivities. The traditional Christmas fixture is important for all teams, especially for those at the top and the bottom, as the results at Christmas are usually strong indicators as to which team will clinch the league title and, at the other end of the table, which teams will be relegated.
This being the case, the teams and their fans all place great importance on these four matches, which are scheduled over just 12 days, because they know they could make or break their season. This year Chelsea led the table on Christmas Day, three points ahead of Manchester City, while Leicester City were sitting at the bottom with just 10 points from 17 matches. Over the past decade Chelsea had been the league leaders at Christmas on three occasions, and they registered a 100 per cent record by winning the league title in all these three seasons. This London-based team got three more points last night in their defeat of West Ham while Leicester again had no luck as they were beaten by Tottenham Hotspur. Let’s see if these two teams will follow the strong statistical trend and are in the same positions in May when the season ends.
We just entered the middle third of our racing season but the JRA will host its final race day of the year tomorrow, the highlight being the G1 Arima Kinen at Nakayama. This year we will simulcast this popular year-end racing event to Hong Kong for the first time. It’s pleasing to see such an outstanding line-up in the race as the world’s top-rated horse, Just A Way, and the brilliant mare, Gentildonna, both victorious in Dubai back in March, will be having their farewell runs. And the 2500m race also features last month’s Japan Cup winner Epiphaneia and Derby winner One And Only. The race will be simulcast between Races 4 and 5 of our local card, at 2.25pm, tomorrow. So you can see which top Japanese horse can grab the final major prize of the year in our simulcast.
At Sha Tin we’ve also arranged a total of 11 races for our final race meeting of 2014, with the first race due off at 12.30pm. The daily highlight will be the Griffin Trophy, a race restricted to three-year-olds. Since this race was inaugurated in 2011 it had featured some very decent horses such as last year's winner Luger and the 2011 runner-up Bear Hero, who were both entered to compete in the Class 2 Chek Keng Handicap tomorrow, as well as last year’s fourth Domineer who notched his third victory of the season just last week at Happy Valley. It's a pity to learn that Luger, who won another two races impressively after winning this race last season and had its rating being increased to 100, has been scratched from the race due to fever. I hope the four-year-old gelding will recover soon and continue to improve in near future.
Having said that, I’ve studied the form and I think there are also some promising runners in the field this year. It will be worth for you to pay some close attention to their performances to see if there are any stars in the making in this race.
In the Chek Keng Handicap, despite Luger being withdrawn from this Class 2 1400m contest, it remains to be a very exciting race with one of the much talked about Hong Kong Classic Mile and BMW Hong Kong Derby candidates Arpinati in it. The newcomer Savvy Nature has been bought with the Derby in mind too and it will be interesting to see how he performs. The pace is likely to be good with Multivictory leading and Bullish Boy joining him. The widely drawn Full Talent needs to go forward to avoid being trapped wide and should be well positioned with I'm In Charge. Arpinati, Jazzy Feeling and probably newcomer Savvy Nature can all be well placed in midfield, while Our Folks and Bear Hero are likely to be taken back to avoid racing wide.
Arpinati is working well and deserves to be the first choice but one should not underestimate horses like Multivictory, I'm In Charge and Full Talent. Savvy Nature trialed well and will improve from the run, but I would not be surprised if he runs well and challenge the others for a place.
Comment
