I know you'll have been as shocked and saddened as I have over the past few days to see the horrors of the earthquake in Japan and resulting tsunamis unfold live on TV news bulletins. Watching whole towns simply reduced to debris in a matter of minutes has been heartbreaking for any of us to watch, so one can only imagine how terrible it must be have been for those affected. It puts a new perspective on our lives and makes us realise that even though we sometimes suffer frustrations in our daily lives, we are very fortunate to live in a city that is largely immune to natural disasters.
Already thousands of people are known to have lost their lives, and tens of thousands more are still missing. On top of that, there remains a serious threat of explosions at one or more of the nuclear plants in the vicinity and consequent radiation leakage. It's little wonder that the Japanese prime minister has described it as his country's worst crisis since the end of World War II. My thoughts are with them and hopefully they can get past these difficult moments very soon.
Not surprisingly, all sports activities in Japan have come to a halt in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, including horse racing, with all of last Saturday's and Sunday's fixtures postponed by the Japan Racing Association. The JRA has offered immediate help to those affected by allocating 100 million yen for immediate relief work in the disaster areas.
I understand that some training and stable facilities at the Miho Training Centre in Eastern Japan were damaged in the earthquake, though fortunately all horses there were unharmed. Damage has also been reported at Fukushima Racecourse, the JRA racecourse nearest to the epicentre, and even at Nakayama Racecourse near Tokyo.
Two of our local horses, namely Joy And Fun and Green Birdie, who have entered for the Takamatsunomiya Kinen at Hanshin Racecourse on 27 March, have decided to cancel the trip. It's too early to tell whether there will be any impact on Japanese runners coming to take part in the Audemars Piquet QE II Cup and Champions Mile in the coming weeks. I hope not, of course, but whatever happens will not affect our long-term relationships and exchanges with Japanese racing.
While we are eagerly looking forward to Sunday’s Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby, we have another midweek meeting tonight at Happy Valley, which will mark the finale of our Wines in the Valley programme. In addition to the selected wines and food on offer, the eight races on the card looks to be fairly tasty. Among them, the Freesia Handicap is one of the Class 3 races with an expanded rating band of 85 to 60 instead of the normal 80 to 60. All horses in the race are at the 80 plus mark or above and there is therefore a rating difference of only 5 points between the top-rated horse Jumbo Gold and the lowest-rated Century Super Star. This tight rating band makes the race even more interesting, and the expected good to fast pace looks sure to give horses coming from the back of the field a chance to perform well too. The field includes five horses who usually lead or sit just off the pace, so Mi Reilly and Wine Win will have to work early to get to the front, which may not help their chances. Jumbo Gold, jumping from Gate 4, should be in a good position behind the leaders and for me looks the main chance, particularly he has already won four times over the course and distance. His main opposition is Always Something who has also won at this course and distance, and from Gate 3, he is likely to be on the rail in midfield. Other main chances for a place are Flying Colours and Mr Vigorous.
The Daffodil Handicap is a very competitive Class 2 event over 1000m, and for races like these which usually run at a good pace, it is very important for horses to be in the lead or not worse than midfield to have a chance of winning. Bundle O’ Gold from Gate 1 and with Prebble on board should have a very good chance to win in this race. His main rivals are Chevalier King, who is a course and distance specialist but from Gate 9, which may not help although he is still a place chance for me, and California Moon, who is better drawn in Gate 4.
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