Yesterday was a special day for the Club and an important milestone for racing development in Hong Kong. The Legislative Council passed a law amendment bill on the Betting Duty Ordinance, which has given us the green light to set up two-way commingled pools with our partner jurisdictions overseas.
The Club was in fact the first party, back in 2007, to raise the concept of commingled pools to our global racing counterparts during that year’s Asian Racing Conference in Dubai. It has since become the preferred direction of development in world racing in recent years, highlighted by the considerable successes of collaborations among Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Africa. With the sport becoming increasingly globalised in recent years, the passage of the bill is important to Hong Kong that it will not be left behind in this worldwide trend and this legislation strengthens our position at the fore of world racing.
Importantly, having commingled pools in place will allow us to work together with overseas racing jurisdictions to combat those illicit groups that conduct odds arbitrage activities on local or simulcast races. This is in line with our long-time goal to help ensure the healthy and sustainable development of our sport, through the concerted efforts made by the Club and the government, for the benefit of the local community. This fight against illegal betting and bookmaking activities, together with our guaranteed betting duty to the government on non-local simulcast races – maintains our key role as a stable major tax income source to the public coffer and the government.
In the meantime, this will serve as an opportunity for us to help export Hong Kong’s racing brand and our premier racing products to overseas racing fans. With the bill now being passed, our team will work hard on further implementation proceedings and will discuss with our overseas partners. We hope related measures and new arrangements for commingling will be in effect as the new racing season starts in September.
With racing now being more globalised, we are seeing more Hong Kong horses and jockeys participating in overseas events, and some of them have garnered outstanding results. Some of our talented young jockeys are among those to have sampled overseas success, such as Matthew Chadwick who has showcased his talents with Group 1 wins and a Shergar Cup triumph at Ascot, and Alvin Ng who I think has benefited from winning the Asian Young Guns Challenge in Macau last summer.
We have a good crop of young local riders right now. Keith Yeung, Vincent Ho and Ben So have also emerged in recent seasons and they have developed quickly after graduating from their apprenticeship to become established in Hong Kong. Current apprentices like Alvin and the season’s Champion Apprentice Jockey-elect Dicky Lui have both shown steady development in their riding this season. All of these riders have in common the fact that they received professional and systematic racing training in our apprentice jockeys’ school, before going aboard to further hone their riding skills in professional races and gain experience of the industry outside Hong Kong. They have not disappointed us for the most part as they have shown great competitiveness when facing other top jockeys based in Hong Kong, some of whom are among the top echelon of riders in the world.
From the Club’s perspective, we are definitely pleased with the results as the rise of local riders is good in terms of the sustainability of local racing. The Club is dedicated to discovering and developing young riding talent and it is apparent too that racing fans offer great support to these local riders. We will soon commence our latest racing trainee recruitment exercise, starting on 15 July. So for those of you who dream of developing a career in racing, please keep an eye on our announcement later.
Turning to the Trainers’ Championship, with only three race meetings to go, both Dennis Yip and John Size have a strong line-up of runners at the Valley this evening. Each is represented in seven of the eight races. Cruz deploys only two runners tonight but both Beauty Sparkle and Winnie’s Horse should have decent chance, and he has a strong hand of entries for the day finale meeting at Sha Tin on Sunday. I will be paying close attention to see how their runners perform this evening.
In the Carnation Handicap, which is run as a Class 3 over 1200m and programmed as Race 7, could be a race that is crucial to the battle of Yip, Cruz and Size for the Championship, as their horses are all in with a chance. The good to slow pace should help Winnie's Horse from Cruz’s stable and ridden by Gerald Mosse to take the lead, with Jazzy Feeling can take the box seat on the inside of Topspin Express. Good Good View should be in midfield which is not a disadvantage at all. Master Sommelier is likely to be positioned behind midfield, but he’s not the choice of Douglas Whyte, who has opted for Perfect Finish. His runner is drawn wide but on form. That’s why he could still be a place chance. I have as first choice in Jazzy Feeling who is working very well and is better drawn this time. With Matthew Chadwick in the saddle he could beat my second choice Winnie's Horse. Master Sommelier and Good Good View I see more as place chances.
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