Recently I had the chance to meet a group of leading local and overseas educators and discuss how we can better prepare our young people for the challenges of the 21st century, which is an issue very close to my heart. They are helping us with an exciting new Club-funded project called “Coding Education for Primary Schools,” which will soon be launched in collaboration with the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Hong Kong Institute of Education and the City University of Hong Kong.
This is a four-year, HK$210 million project which will equip over 16,000 students from 32 local primary schools, regardless of background, with the basic coding capabilities to foster problem-solving and logical thinking, so that they’re given at an early age with the skills they need to embrace the digital age. This will provide a strong foundation for success in their 21st-century career paths and ultimately help Hong Kong maintain its competitive edge long into the future.
Beauty Only and Lucky Bubbles were the stars at Sha Tin on Sunday as they each produced a classy performance to secure comfortable wins in the Chairman’s Trophy and Sprint Cup, respectively. It’s especially pleasing to see Lucky Bubbles, still a four-year-old, reaching group-level glory in style. Both horses will definitely face tough challenges against local and overseas contenders should they start in the Champions Mile and Chairman’s Sprint Prize.
Last weekend, I recommended you review the performances of Winx and Chautauqua from the first day of The Championships last Saturday. If you had a chance to view the video, I believe you will agree they are both at their prime at the moment. The win by Chautauqua is particularly satisfying as he will bring his sizzling form to the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, a renewal which will be run as an international G1 event for the very first time.
There was more from Japan over the weekend too as our APQEII Cup contenders, Lovely Day and Nuovo Record,finished fourth and sixth in the G2 Osaka Hai respectively. Having watched the footage, I think both of them ran well considering it was their first runs of the season. They will be quite interesting to watch in the lead-up to our big race on 24 April.
Our races tonight will be held on the all-weather track at Sha Tin. For the eight races on the card, a field of nine were drawn for our Class 1 feature, the Yan Chau Tong Handicap over 1,200 metres of the all-weather track, but two defections leave us with a group of seven in what is a fascinating contest. The pace should be good or even fast with Amber Sky assured to go to the lead. Pablosky will likely track with Secret Sham as another who should be in the pace battle. I’m In Charge should be next in the fray with Disciples Twelve and Mr Genuine joining Packing Llaregyb outpaced in the early going.
Amber Sky will carry 20 pounds more than he did when a strong third over the straight turf course last time. He knows no other way than to go forward and will ensure a swift early pace. I think he can likely land in the top three with another good effort as he will enjoy the class relief this race offers. Pablosky is working very well and gets an 11-pound break over Amber Sky and greatly prefers these sprints as opposed to the two-turn races. He has led before but can be versatile to come from just off the lead, which makes him my main win and place chance.
Mr Genuine is an outsider who could land a place. He trialed very easily on the surface last week under tonight’s rider Ben So and there is some pedigree on his dam side to think he could run well over our dirt surface.
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