In the early hours of last Sunday, the Club brought you the simulcast of the Breeders' Cup Mile race from the Santa Anita Racetrack in California. I'm delighted with the increase in the race's turnover this year, but I can tell you we are not purely eyeing the money aspect. It is also our intention to let local racing fans watch and learn more about the relative form of the runners engaged in this race. On this occasion, for example, we offered local racing fans a good chance to follow the form of Kip Deville, the runner-up in the race, as his trainer Rick Dutrow has already set the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile as top option for his galloper's next run.
Like Kip Deville, many runners in the Breeders' Cup will also become potential participants in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races and Audemars Piguet QEII Cup. In regard to that, it's our ultimate target to simulcast all Breeders' Cup races and other major international races to Hong Kong. When local racing fans can watch the performances of these top runners and enjoy the quality of the sport, they will also realise that our local races, in particular our Group One events, are well on par with other top races in the world. So I hope the restrictions concerning the simulcast of overseas races can be relaxed considerably in the future. And it will help our fans to better assess the quality of overseas starters coming to Hong Kong.
Recently, you may have noticed that I've been quoted in various local newspapers regarding our worries on the Club's racing turnover this year, and my views on the existing betting duty regime in the climate of economic downturn. I'm sure that our Club management will work hard as a team to take on this challenge, but support from the Club's wider family – our 25,000-strong workforce, our 1.3 million racing fans, and our 20,000 Club members – will be equally vital.
Among our current membership, there includes a number of prominent figures with influential status in our society, and many with valuable expertise in other areas. But it is always our aim to develop closer ties with all the Members, whatever their background, as we view them as very important assets for the Club. Together, they can serve as a powerful force to help steer us through the current difficulties.
Tomorrow at Sha Tin Racecourse we shall be hosting our annual Members' Day – the fourth year of running this event. At our last Members' Day held in June this year, we welcomed more than 7,300 Club Members, their families and guests to the race meeting. This represents an increase of almost 20 per cent on the average raceday attendance by our Members, which shows that this special race meeting is very well-received by the membership. So I hope this year, we have even more Club Members, families and friends come to join us at Sha Tin tomorrow and enjoy a day of fun, racing excitement and privileges.
While there will be a special programme of on-course activities tomorrow for the Members to enjoy, we will not be forgetting our other racing fans as we have arranged 10 attractive races on tomorrow's card. For tomorrow's Members' Day, I'll be watching the performances of Majestic Heart and Gem Of Chiu Ton. Majestic Heart ran third in his first outing in the season over 1400m. Let's see if he can deliver better performance in stepping up to the winning trip over 1600m. Gem Of Chiu Ton delivered a good turn of foot and finished third last time over the same trip, with a better draw of Gate 2 this time, the 4-year-old should be the one to beat in the Members Cup.
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