Tomorrow at Sha Tin Racecourse we shall be hosting our annual Community Day race meeting. This is the fifth year we've organised this event, which gives us the opportunity to express our gratitude to our community partners for helping to make possible our Club-funded charitable and community programmes. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung, and 180 other guests from government departments, academic institutions, social organisations and community groups, will be among those to attend this special event. It's good to see the Club's role gradually gaining wider recognition in society.
As you all know, the economic situation this season has been heavily affected by the financial tsunami and remains very volatile. We expect our racing turnover to experience a slight decrease this season. Despite this, the Club is determined to maintain its commitment to society, and its charitable contributions to cope with the needs of the community during difficult time.
Historically, the success of our racing operations has always been fundamental to our role as a community benefactor, and that remains just as true today. So did races, horses, and horsemen being the key elements to our horse racing business. We have just two race meetings left in this season's schedule, and what an exciting battle the trainer's premiership is turning out to be! It certainly looks like going right to the wire. Last Wednesday night saw Caspar Fownes overtaking long-time leader John Moore to head the pack with 64 wins, two ahead of Moore. Another former champion trainer, John Size, is also still well in contention on 60 winners. Between them, these three leading trainers have actually saddled more than a quarter of all winners (186 out of 711) this season.
It is still only Caspar Fownes' sixth season as a trainer and if he can add another trainer's premiership title to the one he collected in 2006/07, he will have a record even better than his father Lawrie. John Moore is also enjoying an outstanding season as his runners have captured six of the 14 Group One races in Hong Kong this term, helping to make him a clear leader in the total purse rankings, with stakes money now reaching HK$98 million. John Size is also sure to have many supporters in his bid to stage a late surge, and win his fifth trainer's championship here since arriving from Sydney in 2001.
No matter what the result is, I'm delighted to see this keen battle taking place. It not only reflects the fact that we have some very good trainers here in Hong Kong, but also that there's healthy and positive competition between them. I'm sure these three dedicated horsemen will be working harder than ever tomorrow and on Wednesday's season finale at Sha Tin to try to snare this great honour.
Among the 11 races on the programme, I will be watching the performances of Royal Flush in the Juvenile Sprint Trophy. This Tony Millard-trained runner has won his first race in Hong Kong with an outstanding time a fortnight ago. It's obvious that the visor and tongue tie helped this young horse a lot. The horse is peaking at the right moment and with the good draw of Gate 2, I hope he can give another decent run in this race.
Moon Chaser in the Education and Training Handicap is another horse that caught my attention. Having taken a short break in April, he has been doing well in his first up on a soft track last month. Although he needs to carry top weight and being forced to stay three-wide without cover early in that 1400m race, he still managed to maintain his speed and finished a close fifth. In his race tomorrow, I don't see there will have much early pace. I think this should favour Moon Chaser to secure a good spot in the early stage and to get a better performance this time.
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