By the time you log on to the website and read this blog, I will have already arrived in Singapore, where tomorrow night I'll be attending the Lion City's annual flagship racing event at Kranji Racecourse – the Singapore Airlines International Cup raceday.
This will be the 10th year that the Singapore Turf Club has hosted this showcase event, and I must say our Singapore counterparts have done a great job over the years, as it now ranks among the top racing events in Asia. The promotion of the KrisFlyer International Sprint to International Group 1 status this year takes the meeting to further new heights.
If you've been following this raceday regularly over the years, I'm sure you'll agree with me that the standard of participating horses has been steadily on the rise, especially in the past two editions. For instance, the 2008 SAI Cup was won by South African raider Jay Peg, who completed a back-to-back Group One success following his victory in the Dubai Duty Free earlier that year. Then last year’s champion Gloria De Campeao, a Brazil-bred galloper representing France, went on to prove his credentials by winning the US$10 million Dubai World Cup at Meydan in March.
But our own Hong Kong runners have also put in some impressive performances at this race meeting in the past. Apart from the creditable runs of Olympic Express, Indigenous, and Bowman’s Crossing in the SAI Cup in earlier years, Sacred Kingdom's thrilling win over then unbeaten local star Rocket Man in the KrisFlyer International Sprint last year made the whole racing world sit up and take notice.
As well as enjoying the racing at Kranji tomorrow, I hope I can find time to do some touring around Singapore over the weekend. In recent years, the Singaporean government has actively developed the city into one of the region's major leisure and entertainment hubs, notably by hosting the unique Formula One night race since 2008, and creating two new casino resorts at Sentosa and Marina Bay that went into operation earlier this year.
These new attractions seem to have quickly gathered popularity among both visitors and locals. The Marina Bay resort, for instance, drew 36,000 visitors in its first 24 hours of operation on 27 April. The other casino resort at Sentosa, with the Universal Studios Singapore and the Marine Life Park in its enclave, has also attracted an overwhelming response since its opening in February. In my view, these developments will definitely create further competition in the leisure market for Hong Kong, so I'd like to see for myself how they are progressing.
In racing, the Singapore Turf Club has invested heavily on the improvement of its stable and racecourse facilities in recent years. On this trip, I also look forward to visiting the new stables and polytrack uphill gallop, which was completed earlier this year. These substantial investments reflect the Turf Club's determination to lift the standard of racing in Singapore and its commitment to the future development of the sport. In this respect, they mirror our plans for the redevelopment of our stable facilities at Sha Tin and establishment of a new horse training base in Conghua. So it will be nice to check out these new facilities and see if there are any useful experiences we can learn from our Singapore counterparts.
Anyway, we will be simulcasting the two feature races live from Kranji to all of you in Hong Kong, so I hope you will give them your strong support. In the six-furlong KrisFlyer International Sprint, we have three strong Hong Kong contenders on parade this year, namely Happy Zero, Green Birdie, and Joy And Fun, but they will again have to see off the home challenge of Rocket Man, which is not going to be an easy task.
Base on the runners' form, Rocket Man, who was beaten by the World Champion Sprinter Sacred Kingdom last year as a three-year-old, will be difficult to beat. However, I will also be expecting a strong dash from Happy Zero with the expected good pace in this 1200m event. Besides, both Joy And Fun and Green Birdie, as well as David Hayes-trained Eagle Falls should have a good chance to finish in the first four places.
In the SAI Cup, Gloria de Campeao, Lizard's Desire and Presvis are the key contenders in this G1 race. It will be interesting to see if Mike de Kock’s Lizard’s Desire can avenge his narrow defeat to Gloria de Campeao in the Dubai World Cup. In the meantime, I will be expecting Presvis, the 2009 APQEII Cup winner, to deliver a better performance this time.
Before the racing action from Kranji gets under way, though, we have a full programme of 11 races at Sha Tin today. I will be keeping a close watch on how Mandarin performs in the Cox's Handicap. With the good to slow expected tempo of this 1400m event, this three-year-old should be able to take the lead without using too much fuel as he did in his last start and thus should be the horse to beat. Among other runners, Mocha Coffee, Lunar Reflections and Easy Winner are also improving types that could stage a challenge in the race.
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