I’m sure many of you heard the sad news about the passing of legendary Irish jockey Pat Eddery earlier this week. His achievements as a jockey were truly remarkable – he won the British champion jockey title on 11 occasions, a total of 34 classic races in the UK, Ireland and France, riding over 4,600 winners in Britain during his career, and won the Arc four times, including three consecutive runnings. These bold figures definitely showed the immense achievements of this great rider and racing ambassador. More personally, I can still well remember one occasion when Eddery was riding in Germany, partnering Ian Balding-trained Glint Of Gold for a win in the Grosser Preis von Baden in 1982.
Eddery was also one of the fans’ favourites among many older racing fans in Hong Kong. He stayed to ride here on multiple occasions between the 70s and 90s, mesmerizing the local crowd with his splendid riding skills, and fans were surely most impressed with his unorthodox riding style. The passing of such a racing genius was a sad loss to the global racing community, and he will be remembered by many racing fans around the world.
It would not be easy for other younger jockeys to match Eddery’s glittering career records and performances. Having said that, we still have plenty of riding talents now in Europe, and two of those will embark on their first riding stint here in Hong Kong this afternoon.
The two new jockeys, Vincent Cheminaud and Gregory Benoist, are both based in France and will be with us for a few months. They also met our media friends in an official media introduction at Sha Tin Racecourse yesterday morning. They did pretty well in Europe in the past season or two. Benoist had some nice results on horses like Avenir Certain and Ectot, while Cheminaud did well with French Derby winner New Bay and landed his first win in America when riding our reigning Hong Kong Vase champion Flintshire to an easy tally in the Group 1 Sword Dancer. Benoist has seven rides at Sha Tin today and Cheminaud got six. I’ll be interested to see how they perform in front of our home fans on their first day here.
The day’s highlight definitely goes to the latest renewal of Panasonic Cup, who has been our longest serving commercial partner, sponsoring their race day since the 1984/85 season. It will be run as a Class 1 over 1400m, with a rating band of 110 to 85. The race has attracted two rising stars in four-year-olds Sun Jewellery and Blizzard, who have proven experience against these types.
The pace in the race is likely to come from Happy Yeah Yeah and Dashing Fellow, who will have to slot over from his wide barrier. Divine Calling, Sun Jewellery and Super Lifeline are likely to sit in behind with Blizzard and Pikachu midfield. Gurus Dream, who traveled very well last time, should be at the rear of mid-division with the likes of Travel Brother and Brilliant Shine.
Sun Jewellery and Blizzard are both working very well and are both the clear picks. Blizzard carries three pounds less but Sun Jewellery should be in the perfect spot behind the pace with Joao Moreira on board, and probably has the slight advantage for me. One should not underestimate Divine Calling and especially Dashing Fellow, who carries the minimum weight. Super Lifeline is another horse with a place chance in my opinion.
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