Since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged two years ago, the Club has stringently adhered to two important guiding principles in how it operates its business activities – firstly, that none of our business activities shall create any public risks and, secondly, that none of these activities shall put the health and safety of our members, employees and customers at risk.
Guided by these principles, we have been able to continue racing without the loss of a single race meeting due to the pandemic. The Club is proud to be able to continue living to our purpose of acting continuously for the betterment of our society in trying times.
With the pandemic situation further worsening in recent weeks with the sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, the magnitude of the current challenge is unprecedented with all districts and sectors affected. The Club and our 20,000 employees are no exception.
We see it as our civic responsibility to fight this battle together with Hong Kong people for Hong Kong.
Our objective remains to keep racing going and we are fully prepared to take all necessary measures to do so. To achieve our objective under a rapidly worsening pandemic situation, we have adopted a multi-pronged strategy of “early detection, early segregation and early treatment” in alignment with Government policy.
To achieve this, we are executing a proactive and extensive testing regime; instant contact tracing and tracking; further stringent measures to further reduce and segregate staff at work and off duty and the strictest enforcement of the Racing Bubble during race meetings.
Through our thorough risk assessment, the Club anticipated that Chinese New Year gatherings would result in a significant increase in the number of infected cases. Furthermore, we assumed that there is a high likelihood of a significant number of silent cases with no symptoms in the community which can only be unearthed by vigorous testing. We as a Club are well prepared for this significant challenge.
With the support of our employees, we have already achieved a 98 percent staff vaccination rate of two doses and, to further increase the protection to our employees, we have urged them to take the booster dose by offering incentives and on-site vaccination at our racecourses. But, in light of the significant challenge, we have to be even more proactive and agile and have to further strengthen our testing regime for licensed persons, stable staff and business-critical employees within the Racing Bubble to daily testing with six PCR tests and one LFT test per week.
Our strategic partnership with Union Hospital has allowed us to increase our daily sample collection and testing capacity to 1,500 PCR tests per day, while our ability to respond quickly to any reported positive case by establishing standby teams to collect samples and complete overnight testing has been strengthened. With this testing strategy, we are expecting some positive cases even under the Club’s stringent COVID measures, but this strategy and arrangement enable us to proactively detect positive cases at a very early stage, particularly those cases with a low CT (cycle threshold) values or high infectivity, enabling us to minimise the risk of potential cross infections and protect other employees.
Strong tracing and tracking capabilities allow us to quickly identify those people who were in contact with positive cases. We are then able to initiate a second series of tests for these contacts and complete PCR tests within six hours for them.
I attended trackwork on Tuesday morning to speak with trainers, jockeys and staff to gain feedback regarding the operational challenges facing stables in the current situation. I also spoke with the medical staff regarding our testing procedures.
The Club has communicated with all staff and licensed persons in a fully transparent manner and we ask them to do the same in return.
As we continue racing in closed-door mode, the upcoming weeks will be critical to Hong Kong in fighting COVID-19. The Club will continue to closely monitor the latest developments and strengthen its measures as needed.
As we look ahead to Golden Sixty’s return at Sha Tin on Sunday, I want to thank everyone for their continuous support as we head to Happy Valley on Wednesday night when the Class 3 Cypress Handicap is the final race of the meeting and will be run over 1650 metres at a good pace.
Soulmate will make the running with Zac Purton and will face pace pressure from Bear Again and jockey Matthew Poon. There is no other genuine speed in the race and they will try to move along at modest tempo. Soulmate went well in his first start at Happy Valley ten days ago and is a solid place chance given the favourable pace scenario.
Gallant Crown was a four-time winner over the course and distance last season and comes into this race on a peak rating of 71 after a game effort last month when narrowly beaten by recent Class 1 winner Cheerful Days. He will get a nice run from inside midfield under Karis Teetan and is a win and place chance.
Leap Of Faith is a last-start winner at the class, course and distance, and will also get every opportunity from inside midfield. Vagner Borges gets the return assignment and I make Leap Of Faith a place chance along with the Derby-nominated Storm Legend with Harry Bentley riding.
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