I hope you are all enjoying your summer to this point. I am now on my vacation in Europe. It’s always an enjoyable experience attending the key races and catching-up with some of my racing friends and colleagues here. More importantly, it’s a trip that I look forward to as I can spend some time together with my family in Germany.
The racing season in Europe is now at its peak, and certainly there’s no shortage of racing excitement. I know many racing papers in Hong Kong have carried reports about some top races here. Those have included the Queen Anne Stakes winner Solow landing his fourth G1 title this season when taking the Sussex Stakes at the Glorious Goodwood meeting. Also notable was the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot when Luca Cumani-trained Postponed, benefitted from the late withdrawal of Epsom Derby winner Golden Horn, scored an emphatic victory in this classic event.
Across the Atlantic, American Pharoah made his reappearance after winning the US Triple Crown in June, toying with his opponents for a sensational win in the G1 Haskell Invitational last weekend.
The great achievements of Hong Kong horses at the international level brought me many thrills, but I think it’s also a very exciting year for international racing. It’s a great pleasure to see these top horses producing outstanding performances. I certainly hope some of them will feature in our internationals in December. Hopefully there will be more excitement to come when I’m in Deauville for the Prix du Hong Kong Jockey Club day, and also the Ladies’ Day meeting, next week.
There’s still a month before our new racing season gets under way. So I believe many local fans would give fair attention to other sports, particularly football. The new season for the English Premier League will commence on Saturday. Some Premier League clubs have been very active in the transfer market this summer, and I would say our Club’s close partner Manchester United is definitely one of them. They have made some key recruitments, signing German international Bastian Schweinsteiger, as well as two other quality players in Dutch international Memphis Depay and French international Morgan Schneiderlin.
In their season opening match on Saturday, they will be facing Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford. The Spurs are led by Harry Kane, the top scoring Englishman in the Premier League last season. On paper it will not be an easy match for United, but it certainly beckons to be an exciting one. For sure I will not miss such an exciting match and I hope you will also enjoy it, as well as the other fiery Premier League encounters this weekend.
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