As our city continues to grieve the Tai Po fire tragedy, I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the respectful staging of last Sunday’s (30 November) closed-door race meeting at Sha Tin.
I am grateful for the support of Owners, Trainers, Jockeys, Voting Members and Stewards as well as thousands of Club staff – both at Sha Tin and off-course – whose dedicated service enabled us to hold the Sha Tin meeting and to raise HK$70.2 million for those impacted by fire.
These funds have been donated to the HKSAR Government’s Support Fund for Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po, in addition to the HK$100 million donated through the Jockey Club Emergency Relief Fund, to provide for the immediate needs of families of the deceased and those most directly affected.
Our thoughts remain with those affected in this tragic fire and the Club is committed to assisting our community at this very difficult time as the Club’s Charities Trust continues to work closely with government departments and non-governmental organisations in a variety of ways, including the provision of emergency housing, medication and emotional and bereavement support.
Given the gravity of the Tai Po tragedy, it is appropriate that tonight’s (3 December) Happy Valley meeting will be staged with no restrictions in relation to attendance but we feel we should not have our usual vibrant Happy Wednesday Music Entertainment Programmes.
In light of the prevailing circumstances, the build-up so far to LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (LONGINES HKIR) on 14 December has been appropriately subdued.
With DOCKLANDS safely settled into Sha Tin, he will be joined at the quarantine stables on Wednesday night (3 December) by the latest batch of overseas arrivals, BELLAGIO OPERA, LORD DEL REY and SOUL RUSH.
The remainder of a world-class group of visiting horses for LONGINES HKIR is scheduled to arrive this weekend, including GOLIATH, SOSIE, QUISISANA, AL RIFFA, LOS ANGELES, THE LION IN WINTER, GALEN, SATONO REVE, EMBROIDERY, ROUSHAM PARK, WIN CARNELIAN, URBAN CHIC, GIAVELLOTTO, EYDON and BEAUVATIER.
I look forward to observing these international stars as they adapt to their new surroundings.
The quality of the visiting contingent coming to challenge our global champions ROMANTIC WARRIOR and KA YING RISING, as well as VOYAGE BUBBLE, is very impressive with 14 individual Group 1 winners among the overseas horses with 25 Group 1 wins combined.
GIAVELLOTTO returns to try to defend his title in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) for Marco Botti, while champion trainers including Aidan O’Brien, Andre Fabre and Francis Graffard, and many others, are also represented in this elite band of horses.
At Happy Valley tonight, the Class 3 High Island Handicap is carded as Race 8 and will be run over 1800m at 10.50pm with prizemoney of HK$2,050,000.
The pace will be good with LIVEANDLETLIVE (Angus Chung) leading from gate four. STAR CONTACT (Hugh Bowman) will be close to the lead from barrier two with WROTE A NEW PAGE (James McDonald) also settling in the leading group. MONDIAL (Matthew Chadwick) and JOY OF SPRING (Ellis Wong) will also be prominent.
WROTE A NEW PAGE had a perfect run last start when he settled in fifth place, one off the fence and ran home well in the straight, but could only manage sixth place in a blanket finish behind AWESOME FLUKE and SKY VINO over this class and distance on 12 November. James should give WROTE A NEW PAGE a perfect run again from gate five and he is a win and place chance.
LIVEANDLETLIVE led last start and Angus set moderate sectionals out in front, allowing him to fight on strongly to be narrowly beaten into third place. LIVEANDLETLIVE can again get an easy lead here and is a place chance.
STURDY RUBY (Vincent Ho) settled just behind the leaders and came over the top to beat AMAZING GAZE and QUANTUM PATCH over 1650m on 8 October. At his next start, Vincent took him back from a wide draw and he ran home well, to be fourth to URANUS STAR on 5 November. STURDY RUBY has drawn ideally in gate three and can settle closer to the front. He is a place chance.
CHARITY GAIN (Lyle Hewitson) raced well last season, winning twice over this course and distance. His first run this term was encouraging when he settled in the back half of the field behind a strong pace and made good ground when he got clear room late on the inside runners, to finish third to EXCELLENCE VALUE and WROTE A NEW PAGE on 15 October. CHARITY GAIN has had an easy trial at Conghua since then and is a place chance.
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