It was a bustling and vibrant Wednesday evening at Happy Valley in midweek, as thousands of you joined us for the Valley’s season finale. During the evening I made special visits to the racecourse’s happening venues such as the Beer Garden, adrenaline and The Gallery, staying there for some while. All those venues were buzzing, full of racegoers of different profiles and all with happy faces, and I must say that it was pleasing to see them enjoying a great time that evening.
Attendance-wise, our Valley finale drew in more than 20,500 racegoers on-course. It’s been a long time since we last had over 20,000 people in attendance at a normal Valley midweek night meeting - 10 years ago in fact, back in April 2002. It’s really smashing and I’m great to see so many people chose to come down to the Valley, producing what was the best-ever atmosphere that I have experienced there. The cracking support given by our racing fans probably motivated our racehorses in the last race, as seven horses produced an exciting finish, with them all flashing past the winning-post within a short margin of one and a half lengths of each other. Distill, who was himself a G1 winner in New Zealand, was among them but he could only finish placed in this Class 2 event. This reflects the high and very competitive quality of our races.
So now we have just one race meeting to go; our season finale at Sha Tin Racecourse tomorrow. For me, it seems to be not too long ago that we were watching the likes of Lucky Nine, Able One and California Memory netting a hat-trick for the home team in our international races, as well as Fay Fay who became our Derby champion. Little Bridge’s emphatic success in the King’s Stand Stakes – with Danny Shum becoming the first Chinese trainer to win at the Royal Ascot meeting – definitely represented another very memorable moment for us this season. Little Bridge’s victory also showed once again that our top sprinters possess the ability to challenge international opposition, even at the most prestigious events as far away as Europe.
For our racing business, it appears that we will book healthy increases in both turnover and attendance. It’s even more delightful to see our new marketing initiatives and new racecourse facilities being so well-received, earning many emphatic responses from different customer segments over the season. Despite that, I can assure you that we won’t be complacent and will continue to make further improvements in different areas, so as to bring even better service and provide a higher level of enjoyment for the racing public, members and Owners.
Enjoyment of course is at the heart of what we do and tomorrow that will be in evidence as it will be a day for our racing heroes and champions, when they will be recognised and honoured for their remarkable achievements this season in the Champion Awards Presentation Ceremony held at Sha Tin Racecourse. Some racing fans have mentioned that the contest for the Horse of the Year accolade is quite open and there has not been a stand-out candidate for this prestigious honour this year. As a member of the judging panel, I also have to admit that it’s not easy to make my choice as a couple of top runners performed exceptionally well in either local or overseas races, or both, this season. Anyway, please come and join us at Sha Tin tomorrow and you will know first-hand which top horses will be honoured and which will be the one to become our Horse of the Year.
Apart from our races at Sha Tin, tonight we will also arrange for you our final overseas simulcast day of the season; with seven races from the G1 Darley July Cup day at Newmarket Racecourse, England. The race field includes a few runners who featured at last month’s Royal Ascot meeting, including Bated Breath who finished runner-up behind Little Bridge in the King’s Stand, and also fellow top sprinters such as Society Rock and Ortensia. I am looking forward to seeing how they all perform tonight in a race that often produces Europe’s Champion sprinting performance.
I believe some of you might also notice that we have lately launched some simulcast display enhancement features on our racing website, as we have restructured the display of simulcast information under a single section and added a new entry point for simulcast meeting in the racing section of the Club’s website, so as to give better convenience and accessibility to our web users. We believe this one-stop shop service will be more user-friendly, while the realigned layout and information will provide all customers with comprehensive raceday details, including on occasions when we have a double-header of local and simulcast racedays. Hopefully you will find it useful and enjoyable when visiting these sites during our simulcast tonight.
The Darley July Cup meeting is our last simulcast for the season because we are restricted for the period from 15 July until the beginning of September. This rule deprives our fans to follow some of the big international events in summer, especially the likely next start of Frankel – in my opinion the world’s best horse for the last 20 years – at Goodwood next month. The weather in England indicates a rain-affected track, which would not be good news in the Darley July Cup for Bated Breath, who is on form and is for me the horse to beat. I would recommend you to have a look at the track condition in the first races of the meeting before making a decision. Ortensia was not at her best in her last start in Ascot but the training reports are very encouraging and she is a good chance for me in the race. Society Rock having fluffed the start in Ascot is another of my picks. Strong Suit is a classy individual and a four-time winner at Group level. This time he will drop back in distance and the connections have paid £30,000 to supplement him to run in this race. I will see how he performs in this sprinting event tonight.
Back to our local races, the Sha Tin Mile Trophy will be last race for our very successful season, and the good early pace should give every horse a fair chance to perform. Penglai Xianzi should take up his usual role as pacesetter, with Military Move, Keen Marie and Real Specialist competing for good spots. Smart Giant, Turf Express, Dan Excel and Let Me Handle It can all be well placed. Real Specialist has to overcome the draw. But I still pick him over the other strong contenders, because he has further potential and the mile seems to be his best distance! Smart Giant is working very well and is for me the main danger, as well as Let Me Handle It who has improved since his last start. Keen Marie is an upcoming horse with great potential but the question mark is stepping up in distance and class, but I think he’s worth following tomorrow!
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