Those of you who have followed our racing news during the summer break might recall that about a fortnight ago we covered some news about retired racehorse Super Combed. This former Tony Cruz trainee, who was famous for his late surge in races when he was in training in Hong Kong, has been enjoying sound success in his second career as an equestrian horse. Late last month, local equestrian rider Annie Ho, a former Jockey Club employee, partnered the former racer to claim the gold medal in the individual eventing competition at the FEI Asian Eventing Championship held in Pattaya, Thailand.
I know that this news also earned good coverage on several overseas equestrian websites and in various publications, including the latest edition of the well-known international equestrian journal Eventing. The success has been a great advertisement for our local equestrian riders, and so too for Hong Kong’s retired racehorses. It’s great to see our former racehorses flourishing in their second careers and clearly enjoying life. It’s rewarding to see the fruits of our retraining policy; I know that Annie put in a lot of work and care to re-educate Super Combed when his career as a racehorse was over. With her success in Thailand, Annie is now aiming to take part in the equestrian events in next year’s Asian Games in Incheon, Korea, and is hoping to represent Hong Kong at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I wish her every success and hope to see her continue to perform well in upcoming competitions so as to achieve her admirable goal.
Earlier this week, we announced an extension to our sponsorship of local equestrianism for a further three and a half years, up to December 2016, with the total funding amounting to HK$70 million. The decision is in line with our commitment in recent years to support local sports development and nurture local talent, and we hope the funding will help lift the sport in Hong Kong to new competitive standards.
This latest support will enable the Hong Kong Jockey Club Equestrian Team to expand from four riders to five, with Raena Leung joining the team together with current members Patrick Lam, Samantha Lam, Kenneth Cheng and Jacqueline Lai, who have all been re-selected. The funding also enables these Jockey Club Equestrian Team riders to lease horses for their use, so as to help them become more competitive in major equestrian events and target qualification for the games in Korea next year, and Rio in 2016.
As for the four re-selected Jockey Club Team members, they have all departed to Liaoning Province this week to prepare for the National Games equestrian events. In the same competition, when it was last held four years ago, they achieved considerable success by winning one gold and two bronze medals. Hopefully they will once again perform impressively at the national level.
As usual, the Club is pleased to support these top local equestrian sportsmen and women who are so dedicated to their sport. And speaking of dedication, that is exactly the attribute our racing fans admired so much in Dennis Yip last season, and they expressed that very passionately when he won the Champion Trainer crown at the season's finale meeting in Happy Valley in July. Dennis’s success story is a typical example of the Hong Kong Can Do Spirit. The way he crowned the championship last season showed his strong determination and competitiveness against world-class opponents, which made his triumph so much sweeter for him and his many fans.
Dennis will be hosting a celebration party this Sunday to mark his championship success. I believe many in the racing circle will attend the event, and I’m certain they will enjoy a great time. Sadly, I cannot attend the party as I will be in Deauville to support my horse Now We Can, who will be running in the G2 Grand Prix de Deauville on the same day and is aiming to make it four wins in as many starts this year. Following his success in Chantilly last time, we decided to give Now We Can a short spell to freshen him up. His trainer and I are planning to race him in major events abroad in the next few months and I hope he will keep those plans on track with a good run on his return!
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