Kung Hei Fat Choy! It’s great to be talking to you through my blog for the first time in the Year of the Dragon. May I first of all wish you and your families a healthy and prosperous year ahead. 
Dragons appear in many diverse cultures around the world, which makes you wonder whether they are as mythical as generally believed, or whether they really roamed the earth in a previous age! But they probably feature more strongly in the Chinese culture than any other, and have a longer history here too. I know that in ancient times, the dragon was closely associated with the emperor and his court, being the symbol of power and authority. In more popular modern culture, dragons are usually depicted as less fearsome, possessing supernatural powers and great intelligence.
Here in Hong Kong, the Government uses the dragon as part of the Brand Hong Kong logo, a symbol used to promote our city internationally. The nine dragons believed to protect Hong Kong and keep it prosperous are immortalised in the name of Kowloon. But perhaps the most famous Hong Kong “dragon” in the minds of foreigners is our late kung fu star Bruce Lee, whose Chinese name carries the meaning of “little dragon”.
In recent years, Hong Kong has been attracting more and more overseas visitors for the Chinese New Year holiday, due in part to the vigorous efforts of the Tourism Board in promoting the city as a colourful and exciting destination through events like the International Chinese New Year Night Parade.
The Club has been a staunch supporter of the parade since its early days, and I'm pleased to say that our HKJC float was again prominent in last night's glittering event. Our float was called the "Pearl of Wisdom" and featured as its centrepiece a huge, 2.5-metre diameter translucent pearl. Pearls, as you may know, are another traditional Chinese symbol of good fortune, and are often depicted being guarded by dragons.
The pearl on our float doubled as a giant spherical screen, on which we projected auspicious calligraphy messages by disabled artist Chan Tung-mui, who learnt against the odds to paint with her feet. Supporting the float was a troupe of dancers from the SkyHigh project at Tin Shui Wai and two of our home-grown sports stars, apprentice jockey Vincent Ho and equestrian rider Kenneth Cheng.
All these "performers" have been nurtured by the Club in one way or another, and besides showing our support for the young, the disabled and local sporting talent, we wanted to use their stories of striving for excellence to help inspire others in the community, and at the same time showcase Hong Kong's "can do" spirit to an international audience.
It was an interesting parade and before that, I also went to the Hong Kong Stadium watching the Asian Challenge Cup football game between South China Football Association and Japanese side Shimizu S-Pulse. It was an exciting match and South China were only beaten on penalty shoot-out after drawn the match 1-1 in regular time. Despite their defeat, it’s nice to see South China players showing great improvement against a strong overseas team, and I hope they will have a better performance, getting their first victory in the Year of the Dragon when facing Chinese side Guangzhou R&F in the third-place play-off of the tournament on Thursday.
Tomorrow afternoon, the celebrations continue with our traditional Chinese New Year Raceday meeting, another event that has attracted more and more Mainland and overseas visitors in recent years. Last year, over 96,000 people in total packed our racecourses at Sha Tin and Happy Valley to try out their New Year luck, and hopefully we can have the same number of people joining our races tomorrow.
Once again we have arranged many exciting on-course attractions and entertainment programmes for you, including an opening variety show in the Parade Ring and our Fortune Market bazaar on the Concourse, where there will be further live entertainment during the afternoon. And before then, no doubt, you will want to try enhancing your luck by visiting the popular Wheels of Fortune and peach blossom arrangement on the Forecourt.
Definitely you will want Lady Luck to be smiling on you in the next couple of days, as tomorrow we will topping up our Triple Trio jackpot, which means there will be an estimated HK$30 million payout for a single HK$10 winning unit. Then on Thursday, a single first prize winner of our Mark Six Chinese New Year Snowball could take home HK$50 million. So that's a whopping total payout of HK$80 million to help you all celebrate the Year of the Dragon.
This year’s race card for the Chinese New Year is fantastic but it is my coldest New Year since I have been in Hong Kong! The track could be influenced by some rain we had and I would recommend you all to see how the track performs in the first few races.
Among the 11 races on tomorrow's card are two feature events, the Class 1 Chinese New Year Cup and the HK Group 1 Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Classic Mile, the first leg of this year's four-year-old classic series. The Classic Mile - the sporting highlight of the day - will see many of our top rising stars in action. It is expected to be run at a slow pace with Sweet Orange likely to revert to his on-pace running style joined by Zaidan and Packing Tycoon.
To win the race run at such a pace, horses need to have the ability to finish fast and the horse with this ability is definitely Fay Fay, who can run the last 400m in 22.17 seconds. He has won from a fast as well as slow pace and has acted on yielding ground too. Although this will be the toughest test for him to date, he’s currently in tremendous form and I think he will be the horse to beat in this HKG1 event. His main opponent is Captain Sweet who will be well positioned in midfield likely aside Fay Fay and will try to shadow him and to give him the chance of the first run coming into the straight. He is a very good horse too but not yet proven at the 1600m distance. Having said that, the slow pace should help him to stay the extra distance.
Admiration is next choice even I would prefer him running over 1400m which seems to be his best distance. He is working well and has the ability to sprint home too, as well as to handle a possible softer track on which Captain Sweet is not yet proven. Smart Giant is the choice of stable jockey Darren Beadman who is in good form, but I like him more over 1800m than 1600m with a slow pace. However, he still has a positive place chance, as well as his stable companion Zaidan who has somewhat been an underestimated horse.
The Chinese New Year Cup is a fantastic Class 1 race over the distance of 1400m. In contrast to the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Classic Mile, this race will see a fast pace! Aashiq who is back in form should be able to outpace the other good pace setters like Bullish Champion and Just Fantastic. With his ability to handle any ground, he should have a nice place chance tomorrow. Noble Alpha is working very well and will try to overcome his wide draw to run close to the pace, so as to avoid being kept wide. If he is able to do so, he’s for me another place chance. Open Sesame should be well positioned in midfield and should not be underestimated. The same applies to Kyara but the two most exciting horses for me in this event are Fat Choy Oohlala who should benefit from the 10-pound claim with Alvin Ng on board, and especially, Glorious Days who is working very well and is for me one of the upcoming stars in Hong Kong. He will be the horse to beat in the field.
Last but not least, make sure you reach Sha Tin Racecourse a bit earlier than usual tomorrow, as our first race will start at 12.30pm. I wish you all the best of luck and look forward to seeing you there!
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