Tony Cruz was a happy man after the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup on Sunday. Although he had twice won this race in his past career as a jockey he had never won it as a trainer, but his stable runner Blazing Speed changed that as he blitzed to success against international opposition in the HK$20 million contest.
It was the third consecutive win for local runners, which was great, but I was also delighted that two of the overseas contingent ran great races thanks to the two high quality four-year-olds, Staphanos from Japan and Criterion from Australia. They finished second and third, a whisker ahead of defending champion Designs On Rome in fourth. It was a quick turnaround for Criterion from his previous win in the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick two weeks ago and I hope his creditable performance will help entice more Aussie runners from the Sydney championships to come to Hong Kong for this race in the future.
The exciting finish to the race and the high-level performances of these very good horses again enhanced the international reputation of the APQEII, which certainly lived up to its billing as one of the top 20 G1 races in the world.
The QEII is an example of how the Club has continued to always look forward in our pursuit of world-class excellence. The Club always endeavours to further develop our elite racing status and advance our racing brand as one of the best in the world. Yesterday we made a major announcement regarding upcoming organisational changes in our racing division. We are going to divide the existing Racing Division into the Racing Business and Operations Division and the Racing Authority Division this summer. We hope that by doing so, we will be better placed to make the most of the significant future growth in our racing operations, especially the dual site operation of Sha Tin Racecourse and the state-of-the-art racehorse training centre in Conghua, Mainland China, and best manage the accompanying complexities. In doing this we will be able to unleash the potential further development of our world-class brand.
At the same time, we announced two new appointments - Anthony Kelly and Andrew Harding who will take up the position as the Executive Director of Racing Business and Operations, and Director of Racing Authority respectively. While we are all excited about these new appointments, I regret to tell you all here that William Nader, our Executive Director of Racing, will be leaving his post in January 2016. Bill joined the Club in 2007 and has been a popular figure with the local horsemen and the media. He has made a great contribution in the last eight years in areas like the development of racing strategy and advancing our world class racing product. It’s been great to have worked with him and the Club and I wish him all the best for his future career.
It will be some months yet before Bill leaves Hong Kong and of course he will be as enthusiastic as ever about enhancing the quality of racing here as well as promoting racing experience and entertainment, including the Happy Valley themed night. Tonight, it will be the finale of our Digital Nights at Happy Wednesday themed meeting. Various techno-themed entertainment and performances will be on show at the Valley this evening and I hope you will enjoy some great time with your friends there.
For the eight races on the card, the St George's Challenge Cup is run as Race 7 and is a Class 3 over 1200m. At least five of the contestants are capable of leading or sitting just off the pace and the pressure they put on each other should generate a good to fast tempo. Clever Beaver my take the lead while Hella Hedge can either contest the lead or take the box seat on the inside of Elite Spirit or Hawthorne. Dashing Ceramibo should be well positioned behind the pace from Gate 5. He’s working well and is my first choice in this race. Clever Beaver and Hella Hedge are the two other horses I like, with Hong Kong Dancer as my next choice with an outsider chance here.
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