Today is the final day of this year’s Christmas holiday, so I hope you've all had a great time getting together with your families and friends. I've spent the past few days in Japan, and although Christmas is not an official holiday there – and nor was there any snowfall in Tokyo this year – there was still a great festive atmosphere everywhere, with many department stores and shops putting up enchanting Christmas decorations.
Like most Hong Kong visitors to Tokyo, I did enjoy some great Japanese food in the local restaurants. You won't be surprised to hear that I also paid a visit yesterday to Nakayama Racecourse for the Group 1 Arima Kinen yesterday. The atmosphere in the racecourse was very exciting as more than 130,000 Japanese racing fans entered the racecourse, which was even more than that of Japan Cup last month. The racing crowd – similarly as what we did in Happy Valley – could also get very close to the racehorses to give their support to their favourite runners. Racing fans celebrate their heroes but their favourite Buena Vista was unlucky again, though this time the defeat was not in the Stewards’ Room but in a photo finish, when she lost by a nose to three-year-old colt Victoire Pisa. Buena Vista flew home and would have won another metre to go but the race distance is 2500m and sadly not 2501m! Although she couldn’t get her sixth career Group 1 victory this time, I hope we will see her stay in training and contest some of the major overseas races next year.
There are quite a number of exciting Japanese runners who have risen to prominence on the international front in the past year, establishing a "new generation" to take over the mantle of past champions such as Deep Impact, Admire Moon and Vodka. They include Nakayama Festa who produced an outstanding runner-up finish in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Longchamp, and Buena Vista and Red Desire who both delivered emphatic performances in Dubai. Adding to other new stars such as Arima Kinen winner Victoire Pisa and Japan Cup winner Rose Kingdom, these top horses will help ensure that the momentum and sustainability of Japanese racing can be maintained, and that Japanese racing fans give the sport their strong continued support.
It's actually quite a similar picture in Hong Kong, where top runners such as Sacred Kingdom, Good Ba Ba, Able One and Viva Pataca have reigned in our top international and local races for the past few years, but a new generation is now coming through to take their place. Even champion horses cannot maintain top form for ever.
I'm pleased to see that we have quite a large crop of potential champions coming through at the moment, judging by recent performances in local events as well as in the international races a fortnight ago. Channels like the My Rising Stars voting campaign have helped highlight some of the most promising contenders, and have shown how attentive and observant our local racing fans can be in spotting young potential.
It's interesting to note that the runners topping the latest My Rising Stars list come from various different backgrounds, including private purchase griffins such as Little Bridge and Lucky Nine, some outstanding private purchase horses like Jacobee and Let Me Fight, and also our subscription griffins, who are represented in the Top 10 by Captain Sweet.
Although it may be too early to assess whether these horses can go on to reach the top level and bring international honours to Hong Kong, just the fact that so much strength in depth exists among our young horse population is a very encouraging sign for the future development and sustainability of our world class racing.
Such sustainability is very important for a large-scale enterprise like the Club and its 26,000-strong staff team. We have always viewed our staff as the Club’s most important assets, and seamless co-operation between newcomers and other senior staff will definitely be beneficial to the Club’s general development.
This year we have 78 members who will retire at the end of the year, and 29 others who have reached 35 years’ service in the Club. We arranged a special lunch earlier this month to express our appreciation of the massive contributions and loyalty of these veteran staff members. I was pleased to meet them all in this event and chat with them about the huge development of the Club they have witnessed over the past few decades, before presenting them with souvenirs to thank them for their long service. I wish all retirees a pleasant retirement, and hope the long service awardees will continue to find their work rewarding.
Before we say farewell to Christmas and to 2010, you have a final chance of the year to enjoy some racing action this afternoon at Sha Tin, where we've arranged a 10-race programme for you. Though I know the weather in Hong Kong has turned colder again in the past two days, there should be plenty of on-course excitement to keep your spirits warm.
In the Chek Keng Handicap, the expected good pace should give every horse a fair chance. With four horses used to go forward, Straight Forward should probably be the horse to take the lead. Being one of the race favourites, Jacobee should be well placed at the rail and I think this new star will be difficult to beat. Other main dangers include in-form runner Vitality Express, as well as two New Zealand imports – Almighty Windpower and Handsome Zulu.
For the Ho Chung handicap, with the expected good pace, this should favour Triumphant Colours, who has shown good form and is working well at trackwork recently. He will be my top choice in this race. Happy Reunion has also had nice progress. Along with interesting new comer Chater Mikado, both of them are the other key contenders in this 1000m event.
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