Every year the Club sponsors a large number of leisure and cultural events to enhance the vitality and cultural richness of our city. The Hong Kong Flower Show is now underway at Victoria Park, and the Club has offered our support to this event for the fifth consecutive year. Do remember to take your chance and visit before the show ends this Sunday. Earlier this week we also announced our sponsorship to the Le French May arts festival, which will be celebrating its silver jubilee this year. Apart from various themed events and arts performances, another highlight this year will be an exhibition featuring some 120 masterpieces from the world-famous Louvre Museum. It is a rare opportunity that’s not going to be missed by our arts lovers.
More imminently in our races at Happy Valley tonight, we will meet with some friends from the Ebenezer School & Home for the Visually Impaired. Ebenezer School is a familiar name among most Hong Kong people as this school has provided comprehensive education for countless of visually-impaired children and students since its establishment in 1897. The Club’s support to the school and this charity group also dated back as early as 1954. We are delighted to celebrate together with their 120th anniversary cup race and I hope all guests have an enjoyable night at the Valley this evening.
The excitement is surely building for Sunday’s renewal of the BMW Hong Kong Derby and I’m certain our many racing fans will be eagerly anticipating the barrier draw results which will be available late tomorrow morning. While Rapper Dragon is the favourite following his Classic Mile and Classic Cup wins, there seems to be significant depth in the ranks behind him and 2000 metres could be an equalizer which makes this a fascinating contest. I will offer my thoughts on the Derby field in my next blog.
In the meantime, we have a very competitive Class 2 event tonight which goes as Race 8, the Waterfall Bay Handicap, over 1200 metres. The pace in this race is likely to be good as Premiere has led over 1000m and will likely be quickest of all to the front. Molly’s Jade Star and Sea Jade are likely to be close behind with Blocker Dee and Malmsteen in the next group. Jetwings and Clever Beaver are at risk of being caught wide. Back In Black should be mid-division or farther back with Golden Harvest and Super Turbo. This is a very competitive race with three horses working very well and they are my main chances – Sea Jade, Molly’s Jade Star and Premiere.
Premiere tries the 1200m for the first time and is going up from Class 3 to Class 2. I believe the upcoming three-year-old should be able to handle the additional 200m and rise in Class. Sea Jade is an up-and-coming three-year-old too and should be well positioned behind the pace, and is a win and place chance too. Ridden by Kei Chiong, Molly’s Jade Star should be in an ideal position tonight after he was wide without cover in his last run. I see him at least as a place chance. Super Turbo has to come from the back and he was slow from the gate in his last start, plus had to switch over heels entering the straight, but should not be underestimated. The same applies for Blocker Dee, who dead-heated with Sea Jade in his last start, and gets a seven-pound weight relief with apprentice Jack Wong riding.
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