All of us at the Hong Kong Jockey Club are gearing up for our season to commence tomorrow.
First, though, on Thursday, the Club held its Annual General Meeting, with Anthony Chow succeeding Dr Simon Ip as the Club Chairman. The Club enjoyed immense success under Dr Ip’s chairmanship, when he oversaw the crucial final stages of two enormously important projects for the Club and for the community we serve: Tai Kwun – Centre for Heritage and Arts and the new racecourse and training centre at Conghua, just outside Guangzhou. I firmly believe we will reach another new level under Mr Chow’s leadership in the years to come.
Our new Chairman will accompany the Hon Mrs Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of the HKSAR, in officiating at the opening of the new racing season in our pre-race ceremony in the Sha Tin parade ring tomorrow. At the same time, two new kids on the block – trainer Jimmy Ting and South African jockey Grant Van Niekerk – will also begin the next chapter in their respective careers at Sha Tin. Jimmy will saddle up four runners, including Triumphant Jewel – who has trialled well – in the opening race, while Grant is booked for six rides. I’m sure fans will be watching to see if either or both of them will make a winning debut tomorrow.
I believe our fans will also be interested to see the performances of those horses who have spent time at Conghua during summer. On paper, some of them have performed well and looked quite fresh in barrier trials over the past two weeks. Having said that, I think it is best to observe them in the first few weeks as we see how they perform.
Besides, regarding customer experience in enjoying racing, we continue to step up on its wagering customer entertainment offerings for the 2018/19 racing season with several new initiatives implemented. Some of you may have learnt these from the Club’s website and one of the new initiatives I want to mention in our English preview programme is that we will have experienced form analyst Alan Aitken sharing his form analysis in the “Winning Factor” session. With forty years experience in horse racing, I think our fans may find Alan’s insight to be helpful and interesting to follow.
Like this meeting in recent years, we have 10 races on this card. The third race of the season is The HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup with a field of seven lined up in the Class 1 test at 1200 metres. Fabulous One looks like the clear leader following a sharp dirt trial at Sha Tin after returning from Conghua Racecourse and is a win and place chance despite the fact that he has not won in over two years. He will be pressed by Jumbo Luck early but the pace should be only moderate as most of the runners will not be fully engaged through the first section.
Wishful Thinker is a solid place chance carrying a light weight. He does his best work over the concluding stages, showed good form at the end of last season and had a decent trial last week over the straight course.
Winner’s Way is training well for his return and is a place chance, having won a Group 3 over the track and distance in May.
Southern Legend is the class of the race on the strength of his big win in Singapore and a third-place outing in the Group 1 Champions Mile. He looked good winning his dirt trial last week but it came in slow time and this race may prove too tough for him at the distance and the weights. If the wet weather trend continues, Southern Legend is the most likely runner to benefit from a rain affected track and he would become a realistic place chance.
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