I believe many of you in Hong Kong who watched the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe through our live simulcast Sunday will have been simply amazed by the stunning performance of Zarkava. Given the style in which she romped past her older opponents in this classic race, I would say she’s the best filly that I’ve ever seen in Europe in the past decade or two.
I had the pleasure of watching the race live at Longchamp, where I also took this chance to talk to some trainers and connections of runners that took part in different Group One races on the Arc raceday. I’m delighted to tell you that many of them have expressed interest to send their horses to the Hong Kong International Races in December.
Overdose, the moral winner of the Prix de l’Abbaye, was one of the promising runners whose owners have declared their initial interest to run in Hong Kong. In the false start saga of the race on Sunday, this undefeated Hungarian raider completed the whole five-furlong course and was forced to be scratched from the re-run at hours later that day. I think it would be great if he could come to Hong Kong and prove his credentials in front of our racing fans in Sha Tin. This horse is also for sale at the moment and I would not be surprised if some Hong Kong Owners expressed interest in buying it.
While we are dedicated to ensuring the sustainable development of our core racing business, the Club has also supported a substantial number of arts and cultural projects in the local community in past decades. Now local artists have a new venue available to display their art works or stage artistic performances – the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre in Shek Kip Mei, which was officially opened late last month.
The project has also brought new life to a previously vacant industrial building. Thanks to a Club donation totalling HK$94.4 million and co-operation with various partners including the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Home Affairs Bureau and the Baptist University of Hong Kong, the nine-storey building has been refurbished into a new complex including a number of tenanted arts studios, a black-box theatre and two exhibition galleries.
Following the opening ceremony, I toured the centre with HKSAR Chief Executive Donald Tsang and our Club Chairman John Chan to look round some of the facilities. There I met a number of the different tenants of the studios, including one that focuses on Chinese traditional painting and tea arts, another that specialises in oil paintings and portraits, and another one run by an artist that displays traditional Chinese craftworks like artistic partitions. I chatted with them and have understood a lot more about these arts and culture, especially the way to appreciate their values. It's indeed a good experience for me to talk to these talented people.
While I hope this Club project can help promote Chinese traditional arts and culture both to residents and visitors, we are also doing our bit on a rather different front to bring some foreign cultural experiences to Hong Kong, as starting from tonight we will be celebrating the famous German Oktoberfest at the next three Happy Valley race meetings.
You might think this has nothing much to do with the sport of horse racing, but in fact the original Oktoberfest held in Munich nearly two centuries ago was organised around a grand horse race to commemorate the marriage of a Bavarian king – Crown Prince Ludwig – in 1810. So this year we will be bringing the Oktoberfest back to its roots by staging it at a racecourse, and you will not need to travel all the way to Germany to enjoy some authentic German beers, traditional Oktoberfest food and - of course - the excitement of top horse racing.
Actually, horse racing has been a form of popular sporting entertainment since its earliest days, and it is always our aim to add some extra fun and enjoyment to the sporting action, especially at Happy Valley night meetings where there is always a wonderful atmosphere. Although I won't be able to enjoy the fun myself tonight, as I'll still be on my way back from Europe, I hope you will all make a special effort to come to Happy Valley for some great German festivities and racing action.
Despite my absence, I still would like to share with you all my thoughts on Wednesday’s races at Happy Valley. I will check the performances of Viva Hong Kong and Star Of Fame. In his first appearance of the season last month, Viva Hong Kong showed he has better adapted to Hong Kong's environment in the new season as he ran a close third and finished just three-quarters of a length behind the winner. This time he will be competing at the same distance at Happy Valley and let's see if he will give an even better performance tonight.
Star Of Fame is another runner that showed good progress in his warm-up race, as he was just defeated by a nose in the season-opening meeting. I will keep an eye on him and see if he can give another good performance when he returns to its winning distance at 1,200m at Happy Valley, where he is partnered by Darren Beadman and starts the race from the good draw of Gate 1 tonight.
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