Over the years, it has been the "Theatre of Dreams" of Hong Kong racing, the home of countless racehorses and riders who have gone on to become legends in the international racing world. Starting tomorrow, the Club will begin a programme of celebrations for the 30th anniversary of this world-class sporting venue – Sha Tin Racecourse.
Although 30 years may not be a long time by the standards of some of the world's historic racetracks, Sha Tin has quickly carved out its own reputation as one of the most famous venues in international racing, and has seen some dramatic changes over this short period. Even in the 10 years since I came to work in Hong Kong from Germany, I have had the chance to witness and take part in an amazing evolution of the sport.
I can well remember that when I took up my post as the Club's Director of Racing in 1998, Sha Tin staged just two International Group 2 races – The Hong Kong Cup and the Queen Elizabeth II Cup. Since then, our racing standards have been upgraded at a remarkable pace. Not only have both these flagship races now become top-ranked International Group One events, we also have four other International Group One races in our racing fixtures every year. In addition, the establishment of the Asian Mile Challenge and the Global Sprint Series has helped put Sha Tin on the map as one of Asia's most important racing centres.
On top of these, the Club also helped building up the Sha Tin New Town, now home to more than 600,000 people. Not only had we provide 250 acres of reclaimed land for many buildings in this district, including those jockey-club funded community projects like schools, clinics and swimming pools, we have also pledged our financial support on major facilities and projects in Sha Tin over the past few decades.
To name a few, these included the construction of the Jubilee Sports Centre - which later named as the Hong Kong Sports Institute; the Jockey Club Centre for Positive Ageing to provide better care and quality services to dementia elderly; the Jockey Club Trauma & Emergency Centre at Prince of Wales Hospital to provide efficient management and integrated emergency care services, and the Jockey Club School of Public Health for the Chinese University of Hong Kong to offer full-scale public health training for health care personnel. As a result, the bonds of friendship between the Club and the Sha Tin District Council, as well as the Sha Tin community have been ever increasing over the years.
As Director and later Executive Director of Racing, it was my duty to attend morning trackwork at Sha Tin at least twice a week, and daily in the run-up to the International Races. There I had the chance to meet and chat with many visiting top jockeys and trainers. These experiences have brought me so many pleasant memories over the years and every time when I visit Sha Tin and this magnificent racecourse, I feel like "back at home".
It's also great to see that the racecourse has become a popular entertainment venue among the local public, probably the largest entertainment venue in Hong Kong. With a capacity of 85,000, Sha Tin is always the venue that attracts the largest crowds of all during major festivities like the National Day or Lunar New Year.
To provide our racegoers with continuously enhanced racecourse experiences, we have progressively undertaken upgrades of both the public and Owners' facilities at Sha Tin over the past decade. We will continue to do more as part of our Racecourse Master Plan, which aims to extend use of the two racecourses to other sectors of the community. Following Hong Kong's staging of the Olympic equestrian events, Sha Tin Racecourse and Penfold Park now have a very special place in Hong Kong's history and it is also our aim to perpetuate the Olympic legacy there for the community's enjoyment.
To commemorate this historic anniversary, we have arranged a big programme of special events and attractions at Sha Tin tomorrow, including a sports challenge between two of our top jockeys, Douglas Whyte and Howard Cheng, and two of Hong Kong's Olympic heroes, cyclist Wong Kam-po and rower Law Hiu-fung. This is very appropriate as in addition to being the home of many racing legends, Sha Tin Racecourse has for much of history been neighboured by the Hong Kong Sports Institute, the main training centre for our city's elite athletes. In fact, the Club provided part of the funding to build the Institute on surplus land, following reclamation of the area now occupied by the racecourse.
Besides this fascinating sports challenge, the variety show before Sunday's races will feature top local pop singer Kelly Chen. So don't miss the chance to come to Sha Tin tomorrow and help us celebrate a wonderful 30 years of racing sport.
While you all are enjoying these entertaining programmes, please don't forget that we have also arranged you with 10 exciting races. I will be interested to see the performances of One World and Rare Treasure.One World, a five-time winner all over Sha Tin’s 1200m distance, has been coming along nicely in preparation for this Sunday's Sha Tin Racecourse 30th Anniversary Cup, his first start since late April. From the in-form stable of John Moore that has generated seven wins form the first four meetings in the current season, this four-year-old has claims in what looks a competitive and quality Class Two race. In another race, Rare Treasure is stepping up in grade, following a 3 1/4-length victory against Class Four opponents over the course and distance in his only outing last May. I am looking forward to seeing a further decent performance of this five-year-old gelding.
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