I was glad to see that so many of you came to our Sha Tin finale raceday on Tuesday. With the weather having shown an amazing turnaround, the racing took place in glorious sunshine and I must say the atmosphere at Sha Tin was terrific. I hope you all enjoyed the special entertainment programmes we laid on, just as much as the races themselves.
I was even happier to learn that Tuesday's turnover exceeded HK$1.1 billion and the attendance was almost 50,000. These are remarkable figures and I'd like to offer my heartfelt thanks to all of you for your support, not only for this particular race meeting but also throughout the season. Your continued strong support always drives us to do even better.
The 2007/08 season is not quite over yet, though, as there will be one final meeting at Happy Valley tonight, replacing the 25 June raceday that we had to cancel due to inclement weather. I hope you will all come along to give the season a final send-off and enjoy some great racing and other attractions.
Sadly I cannot be there myself, as in anticipation of Tuesday being our last day I had pre-arranged another duty in my diary. In fact, I have left Hong Kong already and am writing this from Lausanne, Switzerland, where I am preparing to attend a ceremony hosted by the International Olympic Committee tonight.
With IOC President Jacques Rogge in attendance, I shall accompany our Club Chairman John Chan to unveil a Jockey Club-engraved stone on the "Wall of Contributors" at the IOC Museum. We are proud to have the opportunity of attending this event as it not only signifies the IOC's recognition of our contribution, it also marks our further commitment in promoting the Olympics, and the long-term partnership the Club has established with the IOC.
Apart from reiterating the Club's full support for the Beijing Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong next month, I will have discussions with IOC officials about collecting memorabilia from the Games to serve as future exhibits in our planned Olympic Museum in Hong Kong.
The Club and the IOC are both long-established, not-for-profit sports organisations and we have always seen our partnership as being "for the long haul". I hope in due course that our museum will help boost sports and Olympic values right across Asia.
While I'm working in Switzerland, I still pay my attention on tonight's races in Hong Kong, and I will log on to the Club's website and check the performances of Multo Expresso and Add The Fun. Multo Expresso finished a close second and was defeated at a margin of short head in his previous run. He's given a nice draw of Gate 3 tonight and let's see if he can bring another winner to his owner Kenneth Lo, who has already snatched a winner with Macho Expresso in our Sha Tin race meeting two days ago. The recent performances of Add The Fun at Happy Valley was with great consistency, as he scored two wins and two second-place finishes in his last four appearances at the mile. Featuring at the same distance tonight, he received a good draw of Gate 1 and I look forward to seeing if he can deliver another decent run in our finale meeting.
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