We've now entered our International Races Week, as this morning we had a breeze-up for the 20 horses to be offered in the Hong Kong International Sale. As well as this being our biggest racing week of the season, I'm sure you all know that another major international sporting event will be officially opened in Hong Kong tonight – the 2009 East Asian Games.
In fact, the preliminary rounds of some Games events like football, table tennis and snooker have already been under way since the middle of the week, and I understand they've attracted some quite good attendances. However, it seems from the local media reports that some of the ticketing arrangements have been less than satisfactory.
In fairness to the organisers, it is never an easy task to host a large-scale sporting event like the East Asian Games, as it involves close co-operation and co-ordination with many different working parties. I can well understand the difficulties involved, having been heavily involved in organising the Hong Kong International Races for the past 11 years. No matter how much you plan ahead, each year brings up new and unexpected challenges. But we have a very dedicated team on the job and we learn from past experiences, so in the end we are always able to keep the event running smoothly and successfully.
The process starts many months earlier as our racing team travel to major race meetings all over the world to talk to the connections and jockeys of leading horses and encourage them to come to Hong Kong in December. Also, there is a lot of advance planning that goes into arranging the various on-course programmes and activities that we organise each year to attract more people to join this great racing carnival. After our big event is completed on Sunday week, our core planning team of 30 members, supported by their individual departments, will start planning and preparing for the international races next year!
So organising a large-scale international event is not as easy as you might imagine. However, the long-term sporting and tourism benefits to Hong Kong are enormous, so I hope you will all give your full support to both our International Races Week and the East Asian Games over the next fortnight.
As regards the International Races, some of the overseas runners have already arrived in Hong Kong to get acclimatised to the local weather, while all the remaining visiting horses will come in over this weekend. Next week you will be hearing much more news about how their preparations are going, and you can also see some of the visiting jockeys in action at the Cathay Pacific International Jockeys Championship at Happy Valley on Wednesday - for which, by the way, the draw allocation ceremony will be held on Monday.
In the meantime, for tomorrow afternoon's regular meeting at Sha Tin, seven of the ten races will be run on the all-weather track, so as to keep the turf in top condition for the following weekend. I've made some analysis and I will be watching the performances of Master Tower in the Midland Renowned Investors Handicap. This frontrunner had his first winner in Hong Kong at the mile distance on dirt last season. Competing in the same distance and course, he was drawn well at Gate 5 and had a 10-pound claim with apprentice Ben So on board, I'll see if he can run well tomorrow. Wing Master and Epee De Hua are the two other runners worth of attention in this interesting race, as they both showed some improvements in their previous runs this season, especially for Epee De Hua who performed nicely in his victory on turf last time.
In the Midland Best Director Handicap, I think Fantastic Dancer should be the horse to note. Although he needed to carry the top weight of 133 pounds in his previous start at 1800m, this dirt performer still ran a close second, at the margin of short head behind the winner. This time he will go for the mile distance and I hope he will deliver another nice run. Dash is another runner we shouldn't be overlooked as he won once and got three runner-ups in his four previous starts in this distance. He's capable to stage a challenge to the former horse. Meanwhile, although Magic Turbo appears to have better performance in sprint distance, he was well drawn and I wouldn't be too surprised if he finishes in the money this time.
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