From Australia winning the Epsom Derby, to California Chrome’s near miss in his attemptto become the first US Triple Crown winner in more than 30 years in the Belmont Stakes, it’s been a weekend of rare excitement for racing fans in some of the biggest races around the world. Underlining the international scope of top class racing these days, I was in Tokyo for the Yasuda Kinen, around 7,000 miles from the Belmont’s home in New York. Hong Kong’s runner Glorious Days finished a highly creditable 6th in Japan and it would be hard to fault his performance on that rain-softened ground. Indeed, both the race winner Just A Way and runner-up Grand Prix Boss took almost exactly the same route as Glorious Days did in the home straight. There was nearly a huge upset, as Grand Prix Boss looked like he would take the prize until the final stride, but the favourite, and highest rated horse in the world at present, Just A Way got there just in time. It was good effort from Glorious Days, which capped off an historic season for Hong Kong’s runners in major overseas races this season.
As the Club’s CEO, I’m of course delighted to see our best horses flying the Hong Kong flag so successfully in their overseas adventures, reflecting the progress that our racing has made over the past few years. It is very important to the continued success of our horses internationally that we incentivise our owners at home to sustain and even improve the standard of our horse population.
Just yesterday, we made the first of two prize money announcements concerning next season. In a few weeks we will confirm the prizes for our International Group 1 races and biggest local G1 events, but on Tuesday we announced more increases in prize money across the rest of our racing programme. Overall, the prize money for 2014/2015 announced so far will be a record HK$963 million, at least 7% up on last year and a third higher than that in 2007/2008, with the biggest increases coming in the better races. We have also launched a new High Achievement Bonus scheme for all horses including PPs, PPGs and ISGs, allowing their owners to win HK$1 million if their horse can land a Class 1 race before reaching the age of five or HK$750,000 for landing a Class 2 race by that age.
We understand that it’s getting more difficult and financially demanding for owners to source and purchase high quality horses from overseas in a very competitive global bloodstock market at present. By introducing these prize money enhancements across the board, as well as the new bonus programme, in addition to offering the highest prize money per race in the world, we hope that we can provide sufficient incentive to our owners to find those good horses and to keep the standard of our racing on an upward curve.
Having watched the spectacular performances of so many high class local and overseas runners in races here and around the world via our simulcasts, racing fans can now give their support to these heroes by participating in the voting for Most Popular Horse and Jockey of the year. The polls opened last week and will last until Sunday, 22 June. So please act now to cast your vote – through our Club’s website, at the racecourse or in our off-course betting branches – and give your support to your favourite horses and riders.
I’m sure you are aware of my passion for football and I’m preparing for a few late nights and early mornings with the World Cup kickoff about to happen in the early hours of Friday morning, with Brazil hosting Croatia in the opening match in Sao Paulo. It’s the second time for Brazil to stage the tournament, after 1950, and most Brazilians have high hopes for a home win, which would mark a 6th World Cup for the host nation. They are certainly one of the favourites and many expect their No. 10, Neymar, to be player of the tournament. We’ll soon see if they can get off to the perfect start against Croatia, led by Luka Modric, who plays for this year’s Champions League winners Real Madrid. By the way, in case you were wondering, I’ll be supporting Germany to lift the famous trophy!
Before putting your attention to the World Cup though, as usual we have arranged eight races tonight, but the race venue will be Sha Tin on this occasion and for the two following Wednesdays. Having said that, if you are a fan of our Happy Wednesday meetings, you don’t need to worry. We have arranged exciting live entertainment programmes and tempting food and beverages at Happy Valley, so you can still come to the city track and watch the racing beamed live from Sha Tin, with bubble performance master and Guinness World record holder Su Chung Tai being our guest performer tonight. So please come and join us and I hope you have a great time, be it in Sha Tin or Happy Valley this evening.
For the eight races on the card, the Camellia Handicap is the last race of the night and a very competitive Class 2 1650m event on the All-Weather Track. With no obvious pace-setter, the tempo is likely to be good to slow, with Dr Good Habit the most likely leader of all. Winnie's Horse can either share the lead or take the box seat on the inside of Bright Strike. Flying Elite, Racing Hero and Eagle Power should all be well placed. Free Judgement and Dalwari should settle behind midfield with Majestic Anthem, while Smiling Watch, Formula Won and Silver Grecian have to come from the back.
Dr Good Habit was placed at the All Weather and is a serious win and place chance, but my first choice is Free Judgement who is working well and has a tremendous course and distance record. Majestic Anthem is a good place chance as is Dalwari who is working very well and in his pedigree his sire More Than Ready is proven on dirt.
Comment
