Last night’s 40th anniversary Mark Six draw was a huge success. Turnover was around HK$446.39 million, making it the highest in Mark Six history, with five lucky persons winning the first prize, each one taking home HK$27.21 million. My congratulations to them. The draw also contributed nearly HK$112 million in Lottery Duty to the Government and around HK$67 million to the Lotteries Fund. In fact, over the last four decades the Mark Six lottery has provided over HK$38 billion to the government in Lottery Duty and more than HK$21 billion to the Lotteries Fund.
The build-up to the record-breaking draw was equally impressive, with people queuing patiently outside Off-Course Betting Branches to buy their tickets. I went down to take a look and chat with the customers. It was great to feel the atmosphere, with everyone looking forward to the draw.
Unfortunately, in the lead up to the draw, it was discovered that there was an incorrect reference in English to the estimated First Divisional Prize Fund for the draw on a customer notice board in the Des Voeux Road West OCBB in Sheung Wan. This was a result of an inadvertent clerical error made by a staff member at the branch. Although this was just one OCBB out of 102, and we immediately rectified the error, we were very concerned about the potential impact on our customers. We launched a thorough investigation. We even considered delaying the draw, though ultimately we decided that it was in the best interests of customers to proceed. Even so, we provided a customer hotline for any customers who wanted to refund their tickets before the draw, though in the end we only received one enquiry.
Although none of this affected the draw itself, we are nonetheless very concerned about our customers. We intend to learn from this incident and further strengthen our procedures. All of our staff are absolutely committed to our customers, and I know they will re-double their efforts to do their very best. On racing, we had a fascinating day for our G1 double header at Sha Tin last Sunday. In the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup Contentment stalked right behind the pace and burst to the front to notch an impressive win, a well-deserved breakthrough for this quality runner at the top level.
But we were treated to a truly impressive performance by Designs On Rome in the Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup. Reunited with Tommy Berry for the first time in nearly two years, he was able to reproduce the trademark 800m-long dash and cruise home for successive wins in this race, and in the process bringing an 11th Gold Cup victory for his trainer John Moore. It’s thrilling to see this former Horse of the Year returning to his best from previous injury setback. With such strong form it will definitely boost the power of our local camp in the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup next month.
Sunday we bid farewell to world-class jockey Ryan Moore who completed his very successful winter riding stint in Hong Kong. This week we welcome a new face for the next month in Eurico Rosa da Silva, another Brazilian, but himself a champion jockey in Canada. Having been based in Canada for more than a decade, Eurico has become one of the leading riders there in recent years, and has also achieved G1 success in the US. He has had exposure to Asian racing too, with previous stints in Singapore and Macau. He should have no settling problems and we welcome him tonight at Happy Valley where he has four mounts.
Racegoers will continue to enjoy our Wines in the Valley themed meetings tonight with eight races on the card. Tonight’s eighth race is the Siu Sai Wan Handicap, a Class 3 event over 1,650 metres, and has drawn a full field. The pace here is projected to be good to slow, with Bullish Smart a likely front-runner as is his preference while Sparkling Sword could be forward with the seven-pound claimer Jack Wong riding him at 108 pounds. Bossiee should take up a good spot drawn in four for our new rider Eurico da Silva. Land Grant, with blinkers on, should get a good tracking position, with Regency King likely to find a forward spot early. Ultimate Glory will likely be caught wide from his barrier while Selkirk Star, Magnetism, Acclaimed Light and Vara Pearl are all likely to settle off the pace.
This is an incredibly competitive race with seemingly many chances. The Paul O’Sullivan trainees have been on a very solid streak and Acclaimed Light showed solid interest when stretching out over this distance at his first attempt last month. He has been working well since that good effort and is a win and place chance for me. Bullish Smart will aim to carry his speed for as long as possible and now has to do it under top weight. He is also a win and place chance. The draws are against both Selkirk Star and Ultimate Glory, but both are placing chances.
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