Chinese New Year is just around the corner, and as we look forward I would like to say a big thank you to all 24,000 of my colleagues whom I have had the privilege to lead and work alongside over the last year. They work incredibly hard to provide top class service to our customers, and they will be doing the same on 10 February when they welcome our biggest crowd of the year to Sha Tin for the Chinese New Year Race Meeting. So a very sincere and a very big thank you to all of you.
Of course at the Club we believe strongly in looking after the health and welfare of all our staff. Last year we established a dedicated "Happy-at-work@hkjc" programme to help employees improve their physical and mental well-being. I am pleased to say it recently won a gold award in the 2015 Occupational Health Awards. This is great recognition and encourages us to do even more in the year ahead. Well done to everyone.
We had two spectacular races last Sunday at Sha Tin. Giant Treasure confirmed he is in absolute top form with a short-head Stewards' Cup win for Richard Gibson and Christophe Soumillon following his superb second in the LONGINES Hong Kong Mile. Luger, making his first start since May lost nothing in defeat, and should be very fun to follow as the season progresses. Meanwhile, in the Centenary Sprint Cup, Aerovelocity was back to his best with a win over Gold-Fun and Peniaphobia. It was a great afternoon to showcase our world-class racing stars.
The objection lodged in the Centenary Sprint Cup was overruled, and it reminded me of many discussions we have had in recent years about the differences in stewarding techniques throughout the racing world. Hong Kong is a "Category 1" jurisdiction, as are the majority of racing jurisdictions. For years, Japan was a "Category 2" jurisdiction, but our efforts to harmonize the Asian Racing Federation member jurisdictions behind one single standard achieved regional uniformity after they moved to Category 1 in January 2013.
Here is a basic review of the differences: In Category 2 jurisdictions, horses can be disqualified and placed behind the affected runner irrespective of whether the interference sufferer would have finished in front of the interferer. In Category 1 jurisdictions such as Hong Kong, it must be proven that if not for the interference, the interference sufferer would have finished in front of the interferer. If our stewards were applying this Category 2 decisions to last Sunday's race, Aerovelocity would have been placed behind Peniaphobia and finished third, and as a consequence, Gold-Fun would have been declared as the winner. I personally think that this is not a ruling that our racing fans would like to see.
As it was made very clear in the racing incident report, the Stewards were not satisfied that had the interference not occurred, Peniaphobia would have finished in front of Aerovelocity, hence their overruling the objection. This topic receives regular reviews on the global level, and was discussed again last week at the International Stewards' Conference held last Monday in Mumbai. While we have harmony within Asia on this subject after many years of deliberation, it would be ideal to see the few remaining Category 2 jurisdictions migrate to Category 1, enabling consistently applied rules for racing fans worldwide.
We are back at Happy Valley for a nine-race fixture on Wednesday led by a highly competitive Class 2 Chater Handicap which goes as the last race. Lucky Year is off a low weight and will likely go forward in this event while Pablosky should show speed and be prominent, but overall, the pace should be good to slow. Eroico is likely to be close behind them with Happy Yeah Yeah and Clever Beaver. Lord Sinclair should be next with the likes of Mr Genuine. Born In China is likely to be wide. Lucky Double Eight, High Five and Divine Boy are likely to settle well back.
The good to slow pace should favour on pace runners and Lucky Year, despite his rise to Class 2 and the fact that he is carrying two pounds more than he would have to carry because Joao Moreira cannot make the weight of 114, is my first choice. He is working very well, is the horse in form, and should be well positioned in the race from gate 5. Eroico is coming back to the fore, should be well positioned too and is a place chance in my opinion. Born In China is my other place pick despite being drawn in gate 12 with a risk to be trapped wide but is a course and distance specialist in good form. My other place chance is Lucky Double Eight whose form is mixed but showed a return to form in his last start and with Zac Purton has a top class rider in the saddle.
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