Ladies have always played a significant role in our sport of racing. Over the years many of you will have witnessed a number of female jockeys showing their great riding skills, as well as some top mares and fillies gracing our home turf at Sha Tin and Happy Valley. I'm sure many of you will agree that the performances of these heroines have been as outstanding as those of their male counterparts.
This year the Club has seen the first female in its 124-year history joining the top management, as former Legislative Council president Rita Fan was elected to the Board of Stewards at September's AGM. It's been great for me to have the chance of working with Rita. Not only is she a person possessing great passion and enthusiasm for the sport of racing, she also gives us valuable guidance on how we can maximise the value of our charity contributions. She is very clear-minded on what she believes to be the right thing to do, and I've found it very straightforward and comfortable to work with her.
I also enjoy a lot the opportunity to work with female Club colleagues in my office and other departments, as from my experience all these ladies are very dedicated, professional and passionate about what they are doing – determined to achieve things without losing their female touch or charm.
Tomorrow at Sha Tin we will be giving our racing fans the chance to praise the capable ladies surrounding them, as it's time once again to celebrate Sa Sa Ladies' Purse Day – our annual race meeting dedicated to the ladyfolk. I'm delighted that cosmetic retailing group Sa Sa is again our partner, sponsoring this raceday for the fourth consecutive year. I hope that together we can further promote this historic annual signature event – which can be dated back as far as in 1848, and is quite unique in the region – to all visitors coming to Hong Kong.
As well as being one of the most popular racedays of the season among racing fans, Sa Sa Ladies Purse Day is an occasion when we like to highlight the family entertainment and fun side of the sport. We've arranged a host of special Ladies Purse Day programmes for you all, and every racegoer – male or female – will receive a specially-designed horseshoe brooch for themselves or their favourite lady on admission to the racecourse. So ladies, please dress up and have a wonderful time at Sha Tin tomorrow.
Please don't forget that we also have 11 exciting races on our card. For the day's main event, the Sa Sa Ladies' Purse Cup, I will be interested to see the performance of Fearless. Having run a close fifth in his first-up last month, this South Africa-bred horse has shown improved form in his recent workouts in the morning. This time he will be partnered by Douglas Whyte and I will not be too surprised if he gets his first winner in Hong Kong tomorrow. In the other races, I will pay special attention to One World in the Revlon Handicap. The 4-year-old colt has scored five winners from nine starts over 1200m at Sha Tin. With a good draw from gate 4, let see if he can repeat these decent performances tomorrow.
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