I expect that most of you are now back at work after enjoying an extended New Year's weekend with your friends and families. For me, work began on the first day of 2012, as I needed to be on duty to welcome our guests at the New Year's Day race meeting at Sha Tin, though I always find horse racing most pleasurable work!
I was delighted to see more than 30,000 racing fans come to join us at the two racecourses, with turnover reaching HK$1.25 billion, an increase of more than 10 per cent compared with the same day last year. And I enjoyed even more seeing one of the rising stars of our local racing scene, John Size-trained Fay Fay, win the day's closing Class 2 mile event in very emphatic style. His jockey Douglas Whyte seemed to need little effort on the home stretch to bring home this impressive four-year-old by more than two lengths. In the process, Fay Fay also created a fast closing sectional of 22.64 seconds in this race, which repeated the fantastic timing of 22.17 and 22.32 seconds in his two previous starts as I addressed in my last blog on Saturday.
In my view Fay Fay is a very good horse, one of our strongest challengers at present at the mile distance. I believe he will be a key contender in the HKG1 Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Classic Mile in three weeks’ time, along with another top rising star Captain Sweet, who was closely defeated by Aashiq in the HKG3 Chinese Club Challenge Cup on Sunday. I will be taking keen interest in the preparations of these two horses ahead of this first race of the 2012 four-year-old series.
I know the word Fay means "fly" in Cantonese, and he certainly flies like a bird on the track. It's a shame that unlike horses, birds have been getting a bad rap in the local media recently, as our city is once again under the threat of bird flu. It all started just before Christmas when a chicken carcass found in a local wholesale market tested positive for the H5N1 virus, which put an end to our live poultry supply for the festive season. Then things got even more serious late last week when a young bus driver in Shenzhen was killed by a different strain of the virus.
I know that our local health authorities and epidemiology experts are keeping in very close touch with their Mainland counterparts to share the latest information on these cases, and will take all necessary steps to prevent a potential outbreak in Hong Kong.
I am happy to know that the Club played an important role in establishing the Centre for Health Protection, which now stands in the front line of Hong Kong's battle against potential epidemics. In the wake of the SARS epidemic in 2003, we donated HK$500 million to the Hong Kong SAR Government to set up the CHP, which duly opened the following year under the aegis of the Department of Health. Since then it has had primary responsibility for the surveillance, prevention and control of communicable diseases, and I'm pleased to say that so far Hong Kong has remained relatively unaffected by subsequent bird flu and swine flu pandemics. So let's hope that things stay that way with the CHP's help in 2012.
Getting back to horse racing, we will be hosting our first Happy Valley night meeting of 2012 this evening. There will again be eight races on the programme. The Hong Kong Club Challenge Cup Handicap is a Class 3 race over the distance of 1200m, which has attracted a few proven Happy Valley specialists, and an interesting new comer to Hong Kong in Keen Marie, who despite his name sounding like a filly, but is actually a four-year-old gelding. The pace of this race is expected to be good and with the A Course being used, horses should have a better chance if they are in a good position in the front of the field. Probable leaders like Elusive Prince, Loads Of Joy and Keen Marie will need to go fast early to get across in front of on-pace runners Ocean Wide and Super Plus. Super Plus and Elusive Prince are working very well and are both place chances for me. I expect a good run from Keen Marie especially because he has trialled in Happy Valley before the race, but the draw of 9 makes it not an easy task for him. Xilai Xianzi is the favourite in this race, and I believe he will be well positioned around midfield. This improving horse should enjoy some advantages when facing these opponents in the field, but his main risk is probably whether he can get a clear run in the straight. Supreme Taiji is not the most reliable horse in the field, but I can see him as an outsider coming home strongly.
The Connaught Handicap in Race 7, over the distance of 1650m, sees one of my favourite horses in Hong Kong, which is Great Achievement as I bought him on behalf of the Club as a yearling for the Hong Kong International Sale. Now he has made 78 starts, with 11 wins and won over HK$10 million in prize money. Though now being at the age of 10, he has been kept in terrific shape by his trainer Manfred Man. He has drawn Gate 12 which will make it not easy for him tonight, but I see him still as a place chance. The pace of the race is expected to be good. Together with the A Course and for it being one of the later races, it often favours horses running in mid track from midfield or further back. The leaders are expected to be Travel Guide and Public Figure and they may be pressed by Sunny More who has drawn Gate 10 and has to be pushed early to secure a good position and not be kept wide. Travel Guide has a good place chance for me in this very open race. Delta Hedge should improve from his first start and is one of my favourites who should be coming from behind midfield, as well as Noble Deluxe being my other pick who is working well. Super Tiger and Very Well are the other chances which showed how wide open this race is.
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