In the past few weeks, the equine influenza outbreak in Australia has been a concern for me and other Club officials as it has inevitably affected the import of racehorses from Australia to Hong Kong.
Should the situation persist, it will certainly have some impact on us, causing our field sizes to get a bit smaller towards the end of the season. We are carefully monitoring the situation and keeping in close touch with the Australian racing and health authorities, to gather the latest information from Down Under.
Having said that, the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races this December will not miss out top horses from the world as myself and other Club officials have already got in touch with Aidan O'Brien, Ireland's youngest ever Champion Trainer, who has shown keen interest in bringing top-class horses of George Washington and Dylan Thomas from his stable to Hong Kong. I am sure this will bring a tough challenge to our home team contenders in the International Races.
On a different topic, you may be aware that the Club has restructured the allocation of consolation prize dividends since the start of the season. The response has been very encouraging so far. I've also received a significant number of comments from fans visiting this blog, suggesting the Treble pool be relaunched. Thank you all for these valuable comments, and I can say that the Club is now taking a very positive look into the feasibility of this.
We have another race meeting taking place at Sha Tin this Sunday and being the fifth meeting of the season, it's becoming a bit easier to identify the horses that are in better form, like Dao Dao (No.1) in Race 7 and High Point (No.11) in Race 9. The other one that stands out for me is One Eye Jack (No.2) in Race 6.
Apart from the race meeting, then, you can be sure that like many other local sports fans, I'll be staying up late on Sunday night to watch the English Premier League heavyweight clash between Manchester United and Chelsea. I'm especially interested to see whether the Blues can overcome the shock departure of their manager, Jose Mourinho, and turn in a surprise result.
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