I'd like to thank you all for the tremendous support you gave our Chinese New Year raceday, as despite last Tuesday's very chilly and drizzly conditions, nearly 79,000 people came along to Sha Tin Racecourse and another 6,000 went to Happy Valley for cross-betting, taking the total above 85,000. In addition, the turnover of HK$1.16 billion, a 10 per cent year-on-year increase, was the highest figure for this meeting since 2003. This surely demonstrates that horse racing remains the most popular entertainment and spectator sport in Hong Kong, and that racing fans very much love celebrating the Lunar New Year at our racecourses.
I was especially pleased to see how many visitors from Mainland China and overseas were among the crowds that packed the grandstands, allocating a day of their holiday to soak up the festive atmosphere. It underlines the important role racing plays in our tourism industry. To many visitors, horse racing is seen as one of Hong Kong's most iconic attractions.
While this wonderful response has certainly given us a great start to the Year of the Tiger, it's worth noting that the gross margin for the day was HK$195 million, which was up by HK$13 million when compared to last year, while the revenue generated to the Government rose by HK$9 million to HK$141 million. Although this figure is marginally higher than we would achieve for an ordinary daytime race meeting, the Club's share of gross margin amounted to only HK$54 million, and we have to finance all raceday activities and operation covering from prize money, marketing, staff costs in the racecourses and off-course betting branches, as well as other general expenses. That's why we still have to take a cautious approach as gross margin is the real performance indicator of our racing business. Having said that, I'm still delighted to start the New Year in such a positive note and I hope our racing fans can continue to give us such strong support for the rest of this season.
Tuesday's racetrack action certainly provided as much excitement as our other on-course programmes that day, with a few of our promising four-year-olds taking the opportunity to move into the spotlight. Most notably, King Dancer chose the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby Trial to record his first win of the season, defeating the likes of strongly-fancied Beauty Flash and Super Satin in the process. Fair Trade also put his Derby plan back on track after returning from a long lay-off, when he won impressively against some older opponents in the Chinese New Year Cup. Meanwhile Brave Kid, taking a Class 2 mile event the same day, became the first horse to win five races this season and remains unbeaten to date. The performances of these three horses give me the impression that this year's Derby is quite wide open. I'm eagerly looking forward to see all these four-year-old elites compete together for the top honour on 14 March.
Although the weather is forecast to remain cool and a bit rainy this weekend, that won't interrupt the finale of our Lunar New Year celebrations – the Equine Fun Fest – which began yesterday at Penfold Park and continues today. I understand that 4,300 people, with some families brought along their children, joined us yesterday to watch live performances by the Club Equestrian Team riders. Many children also enjoyed the experience of riding ponies and mechanical horse, too. So I hope other families and visitors will have an equally great time at the Fun Fest today.
There's also plenty of racing action to keep our fans occupied this weekend, as today we brought you a group of simulcast races from Melbourne's Caulfield Racecourse. Among these races, you can watch how some of Australia's top current two-year-olds shape up in the Blue Diamond Stakes.
Then tomorrow at Sha Tin, our programme will include the Group One Chairman's Sprint Prize, the second leg of this season's Hong Kong Speed Series, in which Sacred Kingdom and Happy Zero will again go head-to-head. I've done some analysis of the Chairman's Sprint Prize and I expect it to be a fantastic race, despite there are just nine runners competing this event. Sacred Kingdom is in superb form and Ricky Yiu has again given his ace runner a nice preparation. I think he will be the horse to beat in this Group 1 race. However, he has to resist the challenge of John Moore's duo Happy Zero and One World, who is in terrific form at the moment. Sacred Kingdom's stablemate Ultra Fantasy also showed great progress this season and I think he's possible to be a surprise package for the top three finish.
For the Crystal Handicap, although Elegance Desire is drawn wide for Barrier 13 in this race, he produced some outstanding performances in his past three runs at 1400m and I think there will be a good chance for him to do it again this time. The six appearances made by Penglai Xianzi this season are all on the distance of 1400m, and he snatched two winners and a second. With it probably being his best suited distance, I think he will be Elegance Desire's main opponent in this race. Both Classa and Amnesty failed to perform in Happy Valley races last time. I'd see if they will show some improvement when they return to Sha Tin tomorrow.
Another feature race will be the 18 Districts Cup, which celebrates our long-standing and successful partnerships with the 18 Districts of Hong Kong as well as other local groups in providing various community and recreational services at district level.
Supporting local initiatives is an important part of our role as a not-for-profit organisation and we have launched a number of district-based campaigns with the help of our community partners over the past year. We will continue to develop closer relationships with local community organisations in the future, and I hope they will also support our efforts to develop world-class racing in Hong Kong. A number of prominent district officials and community figures will join us for the 18 Districts Cup meeting tomorrow. I trust they will enjoy our programmes at Sha Tin.
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