Last Monday I attended a dinner party hosted by Mr Medici’s Owner Allen Shi, who invited some Owners, Club officials and media friends to help celebrate his horse’s maiden Group One success in the Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup. Many guests, like me, found the evening very enjoyable and entertaining.
At the party, I had a short chat with Allen and Mr Medici’s trainer Peter Ho, and learnt that while the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase will be the main target for their five-year-old next season, they are planning to take their reliable runner overseas to contest Caulfield Cup in Australia in October. This one-and-a-half mile event is one of the major spring events and most prestigious races at Down Under. I very much hope the plan materialises and I hope too that this versatile horse will produce his usual very consistent form in Hong Kong during the rest of the season.
I’m also delighted that Allen has decided to donate part of the prize money from the Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup victory, HK$500,000 each to be exact, to the Hong Kong Equestrian Federation and the Hong Kong Riding for the Disabled Association. It’s a fine gesture, and very nice to see patrons giving their invaluable support to the promotion and further development of other equestrian sports in Hong Kong.
As for the Hong Kong Riding for the Disabled Association (HKRDA), I believe many of you will know that it was this organisation which provided full support to local disabled rider Nelson Yip while he was competing in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Equestrian events in Hong Kong.
In fact many other disabled persons and children have also benefitted through participating in various riding programmes offered by the association over the years. Currently, the association offers regular riding courses in three riding schools, including Pok Fu Lam, Tuen Mun and Lo Wu, with more than 500 disabled riders engaged in these training sessions or leisure riding activities last year. More than 100 volunteers also give their time to the association every week enabling those with disabilities to take part in different horse related activities.
I found the efforts taken by the association to help disabled children particularly meaningful. That’s why I’m pleased to give my great support and attend the association’s functions and activities, whenever my schedule allows me to do so. T
he Riding for the Disabled Association's 3rd Asia Pacific Conference I attended last October was a nice example. The conference was attended by more than 100 representatives from different countries, and they had the opportunity in sharing their insights into the importance and value of disabled riding.
he Riding for the Disabled Association's 3rd Asia Pacific Conference I attended last October was a nice example. The conference was attended by more than 100 representatives from different countries, and they had the opportunity in sharing their insights into the importance and value of disabled riding. At our race meeting at Sha Tin tomorrow we will be hosting the Hong Kong Riding for the Disabled Association Cup for the first time. This marks an even closer co-operative relationship between the Club and Association, and I hope the running of the race will encourage even more people in the community to render their support to the association’s operations.
This race will be held on the all-weather track and I think it will be a very open race. Some of the runners in the field are in terrific form recently, but they have no proven race record on the all-weather track. Little Dreams and Grand Dancer are two notable examples as they both performed nicely in their previous starts on turf. Despite that, I still think these two horses will finish very close in this race.
However, I would be interested to see how Vigor Delight performs this time. Having snatched his maiden victory in Hong Kong on the all-weather track in March, he had some fair performances in his last three starts on turf, including a close fifth in the Queen Mother Memorial Cup. Returning to his winning course and distance tomorrow, and enjoy a 10-pound allowance with apprentice Vincent Ho on board, I hope he can produce another nice run this time. For Happy Tumbler, he won the last two races at Happy Valley in style. Although he was drawn Gate 12 and facing some tougher opponents this time, he will still have chance to get some nice results in this race.
The challenge for the Jockeys’ Championship now goes right to the line, as Brett Prebble just leads Douglas Whyte by one winner. I think Brett has a good chance to keep his lead with some good runners tomorrow, but Douglas has a good book of rides, too.
For instance, the Kong Sin Wan Handicap depicts the keen contest between the duo. Brett will be back on board Mark Up, which was held up for a clear run in his last race. Douglas will be riding Spinnaker, and the frontrunner may enjoy the advantage of being drawn Gate 7 and the expected good to slow pace in this race. However, I think Mark Up may have better finishing speed than Spinnaker. Let’s see how these two horses perform in this mile event. Among other runners, the light-weighted Soldier, and the consistent Horace’s Legend, may also finish close in this event.
Before our races tomorrow, I shall be focusing my attention on football tonight as Germany will be playing against Argentina in the World Cup quarter-final in South Africa. Though many football commentators suggests Argentina have better credentials to progress to the semifinals, I will still be giving all my support to Germany and I hope they can perform to their best this evening.
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