Last weekend race fans were able to enjoy two simulcast events from Macau and Australia. As alike in the past, I travelled to Taipa racecourse on Sunday for the Macau Hong Kong Trophy day, and this time witnessed Noble Alpha become the third Hong Kong winner of the Macau leg of the inter-port series. Noble Alpha is a German import who used to perform well on softer going, including a runner-up finish in a G2 event in Germany over yielding surface, before he came to Hong Kong. He really enjoyed the very soft going at Taipa on Sunday and it was a wise decision by the trainer and owner to take him there. I would like to congratulate them for the win – the horse’s second since moving to Hong Kong.
For the other simulcast a day earlier, the Doncaster Mile at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, we saw Tommy Berry give a perfect ride aboard Sacred Falls to defeat superstar Pierro and win this mile G1 event. It was the fifth career G1 win for the 22-year-old jockey. Although Berry is relatively young, he has produced some sensational performances in New South Wales this season, particularly in races held in racecourses in the Sydney metropolitan area. His previous G1 success was a career highlight win on Overreach in the Golden Slipper earlier this month and these brilliant performances emphasise his current sizzling form.
In recent seasons, the Club has licensed some young and bright rising star jockey. We have witnessed the talents of James McDonald from New Zealand, Umberto Rispoli from Italy, Maxime Guyon and Mickael Barcelona from France, and they have earned some notable successes during their stays, which have enhanced their reputations among Hong Kong racing fans.
From these young star jockeys’ perspectives, I believe that Hong Kong, with many top-class jockeys plying their trades, creating a highly competitive environment here, is a very challenging place and a great platform for their further career development and progress as a world-class jockey. We would be pleased to see more of this kind of young talents coming to ride in HK, and I look forward to seeing Berry’s riding performances on our home turf when he commences his riding stint in Hong Kong on Sunday.
For Sunday’s main event the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup, Berry will have the chance to compete in this HK$14 million event aboard Citibank Hong Kong Gold Cup winner Military Attack. It’s not often that we see such a young Club jockey – on his first day of riding in Hong Kong – getting such a high quality ride on an up-and-coming contender in a G1 event. I will pay extra attention to how he fares in this event.
Similarly in football, young talents also caught much focus from football fans, and sometimes these young footballers would also attract crazy bids from other major clubs. Germany’s greatest talent Mario Goetze has become the latest example as this 20-year-old Borussia Dortmund player will set to transfer to Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich for a fee of 37 million Euro this summer. I think it’s amazing for Bayern in making this announcement a day before Dortmund hosting Real Madrid in the first leg of Champions League semi-final tonight. Whether such news would distract Goetze or his teammates tonight, will remain to be seen. If possible I would stay late tonight and watch how they play and perform in this important match.
For Bayern’s match last night, they outplayed Barcelona to win 4-0 and it was a good demonstration on how strong the Bundesliga has become. One of the reasons attributing to such a remarkable progress is the strong commitment of the German Football Association (DFB) to youth development. After some disappointing results in the World Cup and the Euro Championships, the current Football Director of Bayern, who was working in the DFB at that time, was tasked to revamp the youth development and training programmes. The results have really been phenomenal.
Before you get your focus on more Champions League actions later tonight, please don’t forget our races at the Valley this evening, as we have arranged mesmerising magic performances from Guinness World Record-holding magician, Hong Kong's own Avon Lee in the Beer Garden tonight for racing fans’ enjoyment.
Coming back to the eight races on the card, the St George's Challenge Cup is a Class 3 event, with an extended rating band of 85 to 60, over 1200m. I find this type of races a little bit tricky when you mix some Class 2 with Class 3 horses. And in this race today we have 10 starters of 12 who would be eligible for Class 2 race. The pace should be good to fast with seven horses going forward. Happy Yeah Yeah is likely to go up front from his awkward draw. Super Plus or Bullish Friend will probably share the lead or competing for good spots just off the pace. New Glory and Longwah Supreme are likely positioned well behind these horses with Victorius sitting in midfield. Sunny Fay should be just behind with Green Zone, Amigo and Turf Magic at the back.
Bullish Friend is working well and my main concern is that he never raced or trialed in Happy Valley but I still believe he has a place chance. Sunny Fay lost ground in his last start and therefore I would discount his performance but the pace should suit him and he is for me a win and place chance. My favourite is Victorius with Douglas Whyte on board as his form and trackwork is very good. Among other runners Amigo and Longwah Supreme will be two interesting outsiders.
Comment
