I believe many of you have witnessed the rising of a new star horse in Hong Kong last Sunday, as Helene Mascot defeated a crop of fellow four-year-old elites and crowned this year's Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby winner. The brilliant performance of this classy gelding, together with the way he resisted the strong charge of Jackpot Delight at the home straight, has again shown his great fighting spirit and credentials to become a legendary horse.
I'm delighted to learn from news report that Helene Mascot's trainer Tony Cruz now intends to arrange his horse taking on classic distance champion Viva Pataca, as well as other overseas runners, in the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup next month. Tony even outlines a bold plan and hopes his horse can travel to England and challenge for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in the summer of 2009.
Indigenous was the last and only local-based horse to contest in this most prestigious classic distance race in UK, and he finished a creditable sixth place for Hong Kong in 1999. As the Club's CEO, it's always nice to see a local horse taking on the world stage and contest with other quality opponents in Europe, and hopefully bringing glory to Hong Kong.
There will be a veteran top galloper seeking for honours in his second encounter in Dubai next week. Evergreen runner and last year's Dubai World Cup third-place finisher Bullish Luck, together with his stable-mate Floral Pegasus, have already departed to the Gulf yesterday in preparing for the Group One Dubai Duty Free on March 29. With Viva Pataca will also depart tomorrow and race in Dubai Sheema Classic, I hope these three runners will perform superbly in the Nad Al Sheba racetrack that evening.
Apart from providing our racing fans with quality racing products, we are also dedicated to serve all Club members with world-class hospitality and membership services. After racing last Sunday, I've proceeded to Beijing and attended the Bai-Sun (god worshipping) ceremony of our new Clubhouse there the next day, to wish for its smooth opening and operation in the near future.
It has been years since we have foreseen the growing demand of membership services in the capital and we eventually decided to proceed with our Beijing Clubhouse project. With the clubhouse now close to its completion and scheduled to open next month, there includes 90 guest rooms, beverage and dining facilities, conference halls and meeting rooms. I hope all Club members will enjoy our quality hospitality services no matter they are staying in Beijing for leisure or business purposes, while they all can consider residing at our Beijing Clubhouse if they plan to attend the Olympic Games there this summer.
Anyway, by the time you are reading this blog, I've already come back to Hong Kong for our eight exciting races at Happy Valley this evening. I will be keeping an eye on the performance of Chater Silk (Race 7) and Lollipop (Race 8) as both horses performed well at Happy Valley, and I hope they would keep their consistent performance tonight.
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