Over the 125 years since the Club's establishment in 1884, over a hundred of Stewards have served on the Club's Board. These elite citizens, coming from different ranks and sectors of our society, utilise their knowledge and expertise in different fields to advise and serve the Club – and in keeping with the Club's not-for-profit business model, they all give their time on a voluntary basis.
For me, I feel honoured to have had the chance of working with a few dozen different Stewards since joining the Club, and I must say they have all been very professional, very dedicated to racing, and very actively involved in all aspects of the Club's development. Apart from giving leadership to the Club and the sport of racing in Hong Kong, they play an important role in our work as a major charity and community benefactor, as the ultimate approval of all our charitable donations rests with the Board of Stewards, and often they take a close interest in following these projects through. I really enjoy working with them and I also learnt a lot from them.
In recognition of our Stewards' prominent and valuable contribution to the Club's success, a special trophy race was created in their honour back in 1954. The Stewards' Cup has since been contested annually and has developed into one of the most prestigious races in Hong Kong. It now has the status of a local Group One event and is also the first leg of Hong Kong's Triple Crown series, sponsored by leading financial services group Citi. Many of Hong Kong's most famous horses over the years have graced the winner's circle of the Stewards' Cup at some point in their glittering careers.
There should certainly be no shortage of excitement in this year's renewal of the Citi Stewards' Cup at Sha Tin Racecourse today, as top runners Viva Pataca and Good Ba Ba will both be making their first starts of 2009 in this race. To me this seems very appropriate, as just like the Stewards have given such strong support to the Club over the years, these two top horses have won the hearts of local racing fans and helped promote the high quality of Hong Kong's racing product overseas. In this race, given to the strong form as shown in his victory in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile, let's see if Good Ba Ba can repeat his dazzling run today. But anyway, please make sure you don't miss this exciting duel in our final race meeting of the Year of the Rat.
Among other runners on today's card, I will also be paying my attention to Special Dragon and Bejeweled. Special Dragon has shown great speed in his victory in his previous outing at 1,800m. He will be featuring at an extended distance of 2,000m for the first time today. A better draw will make it easier for Matthew Chadwick and I hope this will help him giving another good run.
For Bejeweled, his performances have been incredibly consistent this season. He will enjoy a weight advantage with Derek Leung on board, I think it will not be too surprising if he can continue his decent run today.
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