Things rarely happen slowly in Hong Kong horse racing and, in the blink of an eye, we are almost at the halfway point of the season.
On Sunday, at Happy Valley, we stage the 43rd of our 88 meetings of 2021/22 and, glancing at the trainers’ and jockeys’ championships, there is a familiar look to the standings.
Joao Moreira (74) and Zac Purton (56) are again locked in battle at the top of the jockeys’ table, with the supremacy in this season’s contest also holding another prize – the opportunity for one of these four-time champions to edge ahead of the other.
Zac’s 11-win lead in the championship disappeared when he was injured in December, missing eight meetings. Joao’s absence over the next six meetings is an opportunity for Zac to regain ground.
It is remarkable to think that at the end of October, John Size had trained only four winners yet, after the Chinese New Year raceday on Thursday, John had moved to the top of the trainers’ championship with 44 winners.
Seldom in a rush at the start of a season, John saddled 11 winners in November, 15 in December and 11 in January before opening February with a treble to overtake Frankie Lor (42).
There is still plenty of water to go under the bridge but John’s trajectory points strongly towards a serious tilt at a record 12th title. We also know Frankie will fight to the finish, while Tony Cruz (30), Francis Lui (25) and David Hayes (24) are having strong seasons.
While turnover is merely one way to gauge the strength of our sport, it was satisfying to set a record mark of HK$1.863 billion for Chinese New Year on a day when none of our valued customers was on course.
There were several excellent performances on Thursday as Cordyceps Six, still a three-year-old, recorded the fastest final 400m of the day in 22.07s while carrying 133lb under Blake Shinn. There was also much to admire about Flying Ace (22.30s), Cheerful Days (22.37s), Galaxy Witness (22.60s) and Running Glory (23.24s).
Racing returns on Sunday to Happy Valley where the Class 2 Hip Wo Handicap is a fascinating test of speed over 1000 metres and is carded as the eighth of ten races. Nervous Witness makes his first start at Happy Valley after a brilliant trial over the course and distance two weeks ago. He will use his speed to make the running under the light weight of Karis Teetan and is a win and place chance.
The pace will be good as Nervous Witness will face early pressure from the starting high-weight Voyage Warrior with Zac Purton along with the in-form We The South and jockey Jerry Chau. Both are place chances.
We The South made a successful jump to Class 2 and comes into the race having won his last two starts over the course and distance. He is one of many for trainer Frankie Lor that benefits from frequent trips to Conghua between races. This strategy has produced 23 of Frankie’s 42 winners this season while John Size is next best with 14 of his 44 wins to date coming from Conghua. We The South has drawn the inside barrier and will use his speed to push the pace from the outset.
Voyage Warrior is another frequent user of Conghua and a bit of a stranger to Happy Valley. He did go well in his only career start over the city track in December and it makes good sense to return here for another try at the class, course and distance. He should be prominent throughout.
Carroll Street is a last start winner and is up in class as he makes the move to Happy Valley. He will go back in the run with Vincent Ho and has a solid Sha Tin record over the straight course with four wins from only six attempts. He will appreciate the solid tempo and will be making ground as a place chance.
In relation to the preliminary positive result which was detected on Friday through our regular testing procedures, within a few hours after being informed at 8.30pm of the test result, we tested 473 staff overnight and also early this morning and all tests are negative.
Six direct contacts of the work rider who tested preliminary positive completed PCR testing and their results are all negative. In addition, trainer Chris So and all other employees in his stable were also tested overnight with negative results. All the employees living in the same residential building with the concerned work rider have also been tested negative.
The thoroughness and capacity of our tracking and tracing system allowed us to quickly identify direct and indirect contacts of the work rider within two hours of the preliminary positive, allowing the Club to immediately start testing overnight and again early this morning.
Due to the worsening COVID situation, and in line with our guiding principles, for upcoming meetings starting tomorrow, we have decided to fall back to closed-door mode of racing with only those people considered essential to the running of the meeting present on course.
I would also like to note that the international expert opinion confirmed also by AFCD (Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department) is that there is no reported evidence globally that COVID-19 causes infection or disease in horses, nor that horses play any role in the transmission and spread of the virus.
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