Hong Kong racing footage has gone viral on the Internet over the past few days, with it being Pakistan Star’s sensational win in the griffin race on the Reunification Day meeting from last Friday. Millions have seen the footage on many social media platforms and the Club’s website. This young horse gave those in attendance and those watching enjoyed some great thrills with a rarely seen burst of speed after failing to muster much of it in the early going. The horse was at least six lengths from the tail of the field early at the turn, but stormed home after straightening and won comfortably when passing the winning post.
He’s a revelation and some racing fans even likened his performance with the legendary River Verdon, along with some other last-to-first wonders of recent years such as Chautauqua, Winx and even Zenyatta. No wonder apart from the racing community, the footage was also shared and shown in some mainstream media, even making the news in Pakistan as the horse is owned by local-based Pakistani owner Kerm Din.
Obviously, it would be very premature to judge whether this Hong Kong International Sale graduate can match some of the top horses currently in our racing ranks. But without doubt he showed some significant promise in his first run with a final 400-metre split in 21.22 seconds and his career will be fun to follow as next season looms.
Also over the past few days, several stories of local sporting prowess have hit the news, reminding us that Hong Kong’s “can do spirit” is still very much alive. One of them is the performance of Club-sponsored rider Clarissa Lyra in winning a bronze medal in the World University Equestrian Championships in Sweden, while her teammate Leung Oi-man finished just out of the medals in fourth. What makes this achievement extra-special is that it’s the first time Hong Kong has participated in this competition, which features more than 50 top young riders from 18 countries and regions.
Like most of our talented young riders, Clarissa learned the sport at one of the Club’s public riding schools, starting when she was only 10. But it’s since being recruited to the Club’s Junior Equestrian Training Squad in 2010 that her skills and experience have really grown. In recent years, she’s spent most of her holidays travelling overseas – not for fun, but to join competitions and receive training in Europe and Asia. Calm but always smiling when on horseback, Clarissa shows the focus and maturity of someone 10 years older. Like many young people, she dreams of competing in the Olympics one day. It’s great to know that with the Club’s support, Clarissa and other talented local athletes have a realistic chance of fulfilling that dream.
Tonight, racing returns one last time to Happy Valley this season, as we will host the final night meeting at the city course. The first race will start at 6.45pm, so please make sure you arrive the racecourse earlier and do not miss any of the action. For the nine races on the card, the eighth race is the Luger Handicap, a Class 2 event over 1200 metres of the A Course and it has attracted a field of 12. The pace figures to be good to fast as quite a few want to be near the front in the early going. Wah May Friend and Go Baby Go should both be prominent while Happy Yeah Yeah could push on too. Almababy has traditional early speed as well and Turf Sprint should not be far behind. The new face in Jolly Convergence could even be a part of the mix.
The main beneficiaries of the speed should be Born In China, Eroico and Lucky Year as these three horses are very likely to enjoy midpack trips. Joao Moreira will have to work out a good trip from Eroico, whose recent performances have quite mixed. I give a slight edge to Lucky Year for Nash Rawiller, who has been going quite well lately with three wins from his last ten races. Lucky Year also has a win on yielding and a placing on good-to-yielding going this season, which could come in handy if the rain continues here in Happy Valley. Born In China is a placing chance along with Happy Yeah Yeah and Eroico.
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