By the time you read this article, I will already be in Tokyo to attend tomorrow's Yasuda Kinen race meeting at Tokyo Racecourse. This International Group One event has long been one of the most important springtime events in Japanese racing, as tens of thousands of racing fans flock to the Fuchu track each year to witness the emergence of the country's latest top milers.
I've visited Japan several dozen times before to attend major races like the Yasuda Kinen, Japan Cup, Sprinters Stakes, and I've always been particularly impressed by the great passion shown by the racegoers here. Some of them design their own banners and signboards, displaying them in the paddock or at trackside to support their favourite horses and jockeys. And when the pipe band at the trackside play before the start of a Group One race, the fans at the racecourse all sway to the rhythm of the band as they applaud and wave newspapers. I think these are very nice touches that reflect how much the Japanese love their horse racing and the pride they feel for the sport.
On the other side of the world, the 141st Belmont Stakes will be run at Belmont Park, New York, in the early hours of Sunday, Hong Kong time. While tens of thousands of American racing fans always flock to Belmont to see which horse wins the last leg of the Triple Crown, a notable feature of this prestigious racing event is the great support it also attracts from New York's business sector.
This year the Empire State Building has been floodlit in the colours of Belmont – green and white – to promote the race. Long-standing tradition was also followed yesterday when a prominent Belmont participant was invited to ring the opening bell to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange. In this case, the chosen bell-ringer was jockey Calvin Borel, who will ride Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird at Belmont. In doing so, he will bid to become the first rider to win all three US Triple Crown races in the same year on different horses.
It's really great to see a leading world city like New York give such strong support to a major racing event. I think Hong Kong should also embrace this approach, taking full advantage of our city's standing as a world-class racing capital.
On another note, I'm sure that our racing fans will be as disappointed as myself after learning about the Government's decision for not granting us an addition simulcast for the Golden Jubilee Stakes which our top sprinter Sacred Kingdom will be running. However, I can understand the difficulties faced by the Home Affairs Bureau, as they are also bounded by the restraints of the framework stipulated by the Executive Council some years ago. This decision shows how outdated the current framework is, and the reason why it needs to be changed. As otherwise, it will drive our racing fans to illegal and illegitimate channels to support their Hong Kong heroes taking on the world.
Getting back to the Yasuda Kinen tomorrow, our two contenders Armada and Sight Winner arrived in Japan last week and seem to have settled in pretty well, something confirmed by a number of my Hong Kong media friends who have been in Japan for several days now to follow the latest progress of these runners. Frankly speaking, I believe Vodka would be very difficult to beat if the ground stays on the good side. For other local contenders, I will be paying special attention to Super Hornet and Deep Sky. Considering the Hong Kong representatives, Armada and Sight Winner should have a place chance and if the going became soft, Sight Winner may be a surprise.
When I reach Tokyo Racecourse tomorrow, I shall also spend some time visiting the Hong Kong booth that the Hong Kong Tourism Board is setting up alongside the main entrance. This is part of the promotional activities for the 2009 Hong Kong-Japan Tourism Exchange Year and one section of the booth is focused on our racing in Hong Kong. I hope this will help Japanese racing fans learn more about the high quality of Hong Kong horse racing and attract more of them to visit our flagship international races, the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races, in December.
Anyway, while I'm in Japan, I will also be paying close attention to the 10 races being held at Sha Tin tomorrow, and will be checking the Club's website to see the performances of Super Surveys in the Mody Handicap and Gold City in the Observatory Handicap. Super Surveys finished third in both his two starts in Hong Kong over 1400M, jumping from a lower draw of 2 tomorrow, the 3-year-old should have further improvement this time. Gold City won promisingly last time as he stepped up to the mile event, I would be expecting another decent performance from him over the same distance.
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