It's been a shorter racing break than usual this summer, but I know that even seven weeks seems a long time to wait for our dedicated racing fans. Anyway, your patience will be rewarded tomorrow as a new, and hopefully very exciting, racing season gets under way at Sha Tin Racecourse.
During the break, our Club team has worked harder than ever to get everything ready for the new season, and I hope you will see a number of improvements to both the facilities and services on offer. We have pledged that the Club will take a more customer-centric approach from now on, and I can tell you that not only will we be more responsive, we will also be more proactive in trying to cater for the needs of different customer groups, so as to provide all our racing fans with the best possible products and services.
The robust and fruitful year we enjoyed last term has also boosted our expectations for the new season. In 2009/10, the recovering economy, along with the five extra race meetings and 15 overseas simulcast days we were allowed to add, helped our racing turnover for the full, extended season rise by 13 per cent. I feel fairly optimistic this season, though obviously the turnover will not be increased by the same rate as last year’s as there will not have further increase in racedays or simulcasts.
Tomorrow, a total of 106 runners will be battling it out to become our first winners of the season, in the 10 turf races we've arranged at Sha Tin. This is a little smaller than usual and I appreciate that this year's shorter summer break has been a contributing factor. Some racing media have suggested that we should start the new season later, but in fact, we don't have many choices as there are a number of different constraints we always face on our race scheduling for this season.
For instance, we have to adhere to the Government’s requirement for completing the race season before 15 July, and we have to take account of public holidays, a number of which fall on Mondays or Fridays this season. Taking the National Day race meeting as an instance, we have arranged a special Friday meeting and it would not be welcome by some of the racing fans and members of the media for us to hold another regular meeting on the Wednesday before or the Sunday after that.
Though there will probably be a slow start on the number of runners and turnover amount in the first few meetings, I think these figures will be back to normal levels in the near future. I’m confident of a moderate increase and believe it will be another good year ahead.
Back to our season opening race meeting tomorrow, as part of our long tradition, we will have lion dance performances and other pre-race entertainment in the Parade Ring starting at noon tomorrow, followed by a gong striking ceremony to mark the start of the new season. We will also be presenting all racegoers with the new season’s racing calendar and a pen as free door gifts. So make sure you join us earlier tomorrow to have your own gong striking at the forecourt for your prosperous and successful season, and enjoy all the racing and trackside action inside the racecourse.
Last season, both Tony Cruz and John Moore scored a hat trick of winners in the first meeting. In my opinion, both of them, as well as Caspar Fownes, whose runners always had a great place strike rate early in the season, will be the trainers to watch tomorrow.
As always, the HKSAR’s Chief Executive Cup will be the feature race of the opening meeting. There will be 11 runners contesting this 1200m event and personally, I think the race should be run in a good pace, which should provide a level playing field for all runners. Lucky Nine from Caspar was in great shape last season and he looks good in his pre-season training, but my slight concern is that the three-year-olds did not have a good record in this race. Michael Chang’s Amigo should be his main opponent as he performed very well in gallops and barrier trial. He should be the horse with the best chance for me. Interesting to note is that instead of choosing a John Size’s runner, champion jockey Douglas Whyte opted to ride Nightlign in this race. I’ll also see how he performs in this event.
In the Albany Handicap, it should be a race dominated by distance specialists such as Blaze King, who came back to nice form at the end of last season, and the up-and-coming London China Town and Multiglory. Having enjoyed an emphatic campaign and scored five winners in his maiden season in Hong Kong, London China Town moved very well in the barrier trial. This again shows that he has plenty of talents and he will be my first choice in this five-furlong race. Multiglory being another eye-catching young runners and he’s also capable to finish close. It usually takes a little bit of time for David Hall’s runners to reach a top form, but Blaze King has shown some nice early form. Let’s see if he can spoil the party of the two young runners in this event.
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