The Beijing Olympic Games will start in less than 100 days' time. Yesterday, Hong Kong had the honour of being the first city on Chinese soil to host the Olympic Torch Relay, and it made me feel really proud and happy to witness the Olympic flame make a successful visit to our Sha Tin Racecourse and Olympic equestrian venues, especially with our Chairman, Club Steward and top home-grown jockey Howard Cheng taking part in the Olympic Torch Relay there.
This was truly a historic moment for the Club as not only it was the Olympic Flame's first visit to a racecourse, it also marked the first time that a racecourse has been incorporated into an Olympic equestrian venue. With TV coverage going out to a global audience, the occasion gave us the chance to tell the world loud and proud that Hong Kong is all ready for the Games.
Recently, we've set up a number of special Olympic decorations around the racecourse like the Equine Avenue and the Flag Boulevard. They served as a great background when the torchbearers ran through these artistic settings, and I must say the TV images looked very impressive. I was especially delighted to see our leading local jockey Howard Cheng taking part in the torch relay, carrying the torch round the racetrack aboard an equestrian horse. It's a great honour for him and I think he carried off the assignment very well, even though his riding style was a bit different from normal!
Going back to racing matters, I promised you earlier that I'd update on our replacement meeting for the one called off on 20 April. I can now share with you the news that we're planning to arrange a night meeting on Wednesday 14 May, subject to approval from the Government which is still currently pending. We've also notified the Government about our simulcast on the Singapore Airlines International Cup on Sunday 18 May. While Floral Pegasus is likely be running in this richest race in the Lion City, we may well have two local horses in the KrisFlyer International Sprint, Absolute Champion and Sanziro. As we're restricted to receiving bets from just 10 simulcast races over the entire season, we left with no choice but to struggle on which of these two simulcast races we should nominate for accepting bets.
Similar restrictions are rare among the racing industries of other countries, and this Government policy prevents us from bringing to local racing fans some of the world's most representative and watchable races, like the Triple Crown series in the US, the Golden Slipper Stakes in Australia, and the Epsom Derby and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in the UK. This policy is actually jeopardising the development of our racing industry and restricting the choices for our racing public. But I'm encouraged to know that I'm not alone in holding this view, as hundreds of you have offered me your supportive comments after I raised the issue in this blog a few weeks ago. I hope I can count on your continued support, and I look forward to hearing more opinions from your all in the future.
Tomorrow, our racehorses will once again be the focus of attention at Sha Tin, and we have lined up 10 exciting races for you. In the Group 3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup, I will be paying my attention to the performances of Ever Bright and I hope to see if he can repeat last year's success in this trophy. Me Tsui's Tycoon Taylor has also shown improvements in recent runs and I will be interested to see if he can perform even better with his good draw tomorrow.
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