I'm sure many of you were as sad as I was to hear the news that veteran South African jockey Felix Coetzee – the longest-serving rider among our current line-up in Hong Kong – has decided to leave us and return to South Africa after today's meeting at Sha Tin.
Felix has had a phenomenal record in his 16 seasons in Hong Kong, riding a total of 643 winners to date, which represents an average of over 40 winners a term. Apart from being such a consistent performer, I'd say Felix has also contributed a huge amount to our local racing development over the years, most notably for his efforts in steering the mighty Silent Witness to his record-breaking run of 17 wins undefeated, as well as his partnership with Hong Kong Derby winners Lucky Owners and Helene Mascot. There's no doubt he has been a great asset for Hong Kong racing.
In such a competitive racing environment as Hong Kong, where a great number of top-class jockeys come together, expatriate riders really have to demonstrate their credentials and prowess before they can obtain consistent support from Trainers and Owners, and stay riding here season after season.
But for any jockey who is approaching the age of 50, I can understand that the moment will come when he must take a decision and consider his future career, and it's not surprising if he puts his family at the top of his priorities. On behalf of all of us at the Club, I'd like to take this opportunity of extending our heartfelt thanks to Felix and wishing him and his family all the best in the future. I believe that his seamless partnership with Silent Witness, and the never-say-die attitude he has shown in races, will remain in the memories of local racing fans for many years to come.
It's true that sometimes there is more to life than racing, and we also have to spend time with our families. Although the Olympic equestrian events this summer meant that our racing season started a bit later than usual in mid-September, causing certain difficulties for our scheduling of the racing fixture, we have still paid heed to the family needs of our racing fans by deciding not to arrange any meetings during the winter solstice this year. I'm a German but I understand that many Chinese people view the winter solstice as even more important than Lunar New Year and will join their family members for a dinner. So I hope you will be pleased with our arrangements and enjoy this happy holiday with your loved ones.
By the way, we are also studying the feasibility of arranging more Saturday race meetings next season. However, the average turnover of Saturday race meetings is generally lower than that of Sunday meetings, with the Club's obligation to meet the HK$8 billion tax guarantee to the government, this is certainly a constraint to us in our planning. Anyway, we'll see how much we can do on that.
Before we head for the one-week break, though, we have 10 exciting races on the card at Sha Tin this afternoon. I will be watching the performances of Special Dragon and Merry Way. For Special Dragon, he failed to jump cleanly at the start and was trapped by other horses early in the straight in his last appearance. However, the horse still managed to give a chase for a runner-up finish. As he has nice speed and can race in a handy position, this may favour him today as there are not many frontrunners in his race.
For Merry Way, this New Zealand-import had a great performance on his debut in Hong Kong last month, as he finished a close fourth, three quarters of a length behind the winner. He has had better preparation since then. He will be extended to 1,400m today and let's see if the distance will be more suitable for him.
So I hope you all enjoy our races this afternoon. May I wish you all a very happy week ahead. Merry Christmas!
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