Due to the cancellation of our race meeting last Sunday, we've rescheduled the launch of the Club's first fixed-odds betting pool on the horse racing side, the Jockey Challenge, to our Happy Valley race meeting tonight. This creative new betting pool responds to the voices of many local racing fans after last year's International Races, with its format originating from the scoring system we use for the Cathay Pacific International Jockeys' Championship - which of course is always run at Happy Valley.
As this pool is different from all the other, pari-mutuel pools we currently offer on racing, it may take a while for some racegoers to adapt and familiar themselves with this concept - though actually, I don't think most of you will find the format too difficult to understand at all, as we've been holding the International Jockeys' Championship for a decade now.
I visited a few Off-Course Betting Branches yesterday afternoon and chatted with some customers about Jockey Challenge. I was glad to learn that many of them were interested to bet on Jockey Challenge, and they provided us with some valuable opinions and encouraging comments. I hope you all enjoy this new betting experience and I welcome you all to give me more comments and feedback here.
Tonight's races at Happy Valley also feature the Hong Kong Football Club Centenary Challenge Cup. As long-standing neighbours in Happy Valley, having been established in 1884 and 1886 respectively, the Jockey Club and the Football Club have witnessed the development of the two most popular sports in Hong Kong.
I know that many racing fans also love watching football, and I'm sure a lot of you will have stayed up late to watch the entertaining draw between Liverpool and Chelseain the UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg match last night. Tonight, there will be another semi-final match as Barcelona will host Manchester United at the Nou Camp. Lowly Barca are desperately seeking a morale-boosting win to avoid ending another season without a trophy, while United are currently in sizzling form and chasing a Premier League and Champions League double.
I personally think it's most entertaining to watch Man United playing and I would really love to see Sir Alex Ferguson's team win a double this season. That's why I'm certainly planning to watch this exciting match after I get home from the races at Happy Valley tonight. But before that, among the eight races on this evening's card, I will be keeping an eye on the performances of Diamond Supreme and Local Power, as both horses are in nice form and returning to race in their winning distances respectively.
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