Our eight-week summer break from racing will soon be coming to an end. The new season gets under way at Sha Tin on Sunday, 6 September and there has been plenty of interest leading into it.
Before we get to the racing, football took the spotlight earlier this week when the Club made a signature announcement - our largest ever local football development sponsorship. We have pledged HK$120 million towards a holistic five-year football development programme. This will be used to support a range of football programmes to further youth development, as well as advance the women’s game and also Futsal, and will ensure the essential development of referees and coaches here in Hong Kong. We hope this will further promote the sport and enhance standards, to the benefit of Hong Kong football’s future development.
Tomorrow I will attend our annual pre-season press conference at Sha Tin Racecourse when I will update our media friends about the new racecourse facilities that will be in service this season. I will also fill them in regarding the latest progress of our racecourse master plan and the Club’s exciting Conghua Training Centre project, and also our expectations for the new season.
Our growth in recent years has been remarkable and so it has been necessary to restructure some elements of the Club in order to match this development. Our racing division has a new look starting this month. We have split it into two new segments - Racing Business & Operations and Racing Authority. I believe this change will enable a clearer focus on each individual component within Hong Kong racing. This will better match the increasingly important position we have internationally, and the duty we have to the global racing industry to promote integrity and aid the development of emerging jurisdictions. The restructuring will also enable us to arrange dedicated senior management resources, to oversee and conduct the massive Conghua project that is vital for the future development of our sport. Our press release later tomorrow will tell you more about that.
Also tomorrow, as usual, we will welcome thousands of racing fans, including many families with children, to our annual Pre-Season Carnival at Sha Tin Racecourse. As ever, they will be entertained with plenty of attractions and fun offers. The Jockeys’ Sprint is always an exciting highlight, and, as is tradition, we will also stage several barrier trials. These trials often provide insights as to which horses will be worth following in the early days of the season. I hope those who come along will enjoy the many thrills the Carnival has to offer.
There will be two notable absentees from our Jockeys’ Sprint, our reigning champion jockey Joao Moreira and apprentice Jack Wong. Joao will represent Hong Kong in the JRA’s World All-Star Jockeys contest at Sapporo in Japan, while Jack will carry our flag in Korea at the Asian Young Guns Challenge in Seoul. I wish both of them much success and I look forward to an exciting season ahead of us!
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