With the Olympics coming up everyone is looking forward to seeing the performance of Hong Kong’s athletes. But let’s not forget that behind every great athlete is a dedicated coach. It was to honour 135 outstanding coaches that the Jockey Club Hong Kong Coaching Awards Presentation Ceremony was held last Sunday, recognising them for their contribution to helping the city’s athletes shine in the international and community sporting arena. The awards are part of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Coach Education Programme, a four-year initiative funded by the Club to develop the quality of sports coaches. Apart from recognising prominent coaches, it includes a partnership agreement with Beijing Sports University to offer a Bachelor of Education degree programme in Sports Training to local coaches and elite athletes. It also provides an academic platform for coaching knowledge exchange between local and overseas coaches.
Similarly, behind every great horse is a great trainer and stable staff to look after our racing heroes, and we have some of the world’s best in Hong Kong this week and next leading up to our spring international races, starting with the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup at Sha Tin this Sunday. All six visiting horses of this HK$20 million G1 event have arrived Hong Kong to prepare for the race, and nearly all are here for the Champions Mile and Chairman’s Sprint Prize the following week. I have been actively following the news coming out of trackwork each morning and will be greatly looking forward to Sunday’s meeting and discussing more this weekend.
I was in Macau on Sunday to support the five Hong Kong runners in the Macau Hong Kong Trophy at Taipa Racecourse. With the rain earlier in the week, this year’s contest was held on a heavy track. Such condition made it even more taxing for our horses and at last it was the aptly-named Macau runner Best Of Luck who was victorious in this renewal.
Yesterday, our newest Club jockey Opie Bosson was introduced to the media. He will be riding here beginning Sunday and is with us through the end of the season. As you may recall, he was successful in several big races last year in Australia, including the Caulfield Cup, with Mongolian Khan. I wish him all the best.
Tonight at Happy Valley we will host many of the visiting overseas connections for the upcoming races and have an eight-race card on offer. Among the Class 3 events on offer is our fifth race, the Hong Kong Rugby Union Cup (Handicap) over 2,200 metres on the “B” Course. A field of 12 will face the starter in a race where the pace is projected to be fairly slow, which should favour horses that race closer to the lead.
Jolly Gene shows good speed from the barrier and could be one to take the early lead while Allcash could also assume a closer position. Little Island is drawn wide but could be asked to go forward to avoid being trapped too wide. Savvy Nature should settle next with Happy Rocky and Towering Storm behind.
There aren’t too many in tonight’s field with past success over this longer trip and Towering Storm has been quite solid this year for Paul O’Sullivan, a narrow winner over Packing Dragon in December at course and distance, then running second to that rival in another try this term. He is well drawn and working OK for this. If the pace is slow as projected, he might be a bit closer than usual and has a good barrier to gain a handy position and not lose too much ground. He will also carry just 113 pounds in this step up into Class 3 and will make him my main win and place chance.
Happy Rocky has a win and a placing over this trip at Happy Valley earlier in the season and should sit a stalking mid-pack trip. He is a threat to land this race and is a strong placing chance. Savvy Nature is back into Class 3 and is a place chance after encountering some trouble in his last start.
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