In the past few days, some members of the media have expressed concerns about our decision to host two race meetings within three days, with a few commenting that such arrangements cause disruption to their operations. We hear the media's views on this issue and do understand the difficulties they face in meeting their normal schedules. We have always viewed the local racing media as our closest partners, since they are the middle men between the Club and the racing public and play a key role in disseminating the latest news and information to our racing fans.
However, I hope that our media friends and racing fans will in turn understand that at present, we face a lot of constraints and operational restrictions on how and when we can organise our racing schedules. In this case, we carefully considered a number of different factors before confirming this week's programme.
Most comments from the racing media acknowledged that the Club needed to bring forward this week's race meeting to Tuesday to match the simulcast of the Melbourne Cup, but argued that last weekend's race meeting should have been held on Saturday instead of Sunday to compensate. Some commentaries suggested that staying with Sunday was to make it more convenient for some members of our industry, and for any personal interest to watch the Bledisloe Cup game.
But I'd like to tell you that personal convenience is not among our concern. The traffic conditions were certainly bad on Hong Kong Island on Saturday, as it took me almost an hour to drive from home to Causeway Bay area after getting stuck in traffic as far back as Admiralty. If we were staging a cross-betting operation in the Happy Valley Racecourse that day, it would surely incur further pressure for traffic in the area, as well as Police's deployment for crowd management. We therefore believed it unlikely that parties like the Transport Department and Police would give a Saturday meeting the green light.
Although some people imagine that the Club can decide the date of its race meetings as they wish, I'm afraid that is not the case. In reality, we face a number of constraints as we need to consult a host of government departments and seek their approval of our proposed schedule, so that they can make the necessary supporting arrangements well in advance.
The current restrictions on simulcast races also limit us severely, as the simulcast race must fall on the date of one of our race meetings, or it will be counted as a separate raceday. If this condition were dropped, we could actually show the simulcast on Tuesday but stick to Wednesday for our regular midweek night meeting. This is another example of the frustrating inflexibility in the present simulcast rules.
I saw in the news recently that in the face of the current economic climate, the Singapore Tourism Board has pledged to provide all necessary assistance to ensure the success of the city's new casino project. For a nation that was not very keen to facilitate development of the gaming entertainment business a decade ago, this is quite a big turnaround. Singapore now realises the synergy between this industry and tourism development, as well as the economic benefits it can generate. Its government eventually offered great support to the sporting and entertainment sectors in recent years, with the Singapore Grand Prix held in late-September this year – the first Formula One night race in history – being the most typical example of all. So I hope our own authorities can follow suit and remove the out-of-date restrictions now hindering the development of our sport of racing.
In the meantime, however, we will continue bringing top-class overseas racing action to you whenever practicable. By the time you read this blog, the Emirates Melbourne Cup will be about to start. Known as "the race that stops the nation", it's the biggest annual event in Australian racing, so I hope you will enjoy watching both the racing action and the great trackside atmosphere. Personally, I will be paying my attention to the performance of Mad Rush. The horse ran nicely in his previous run in the Caulfield Cup, and I hope to see if he can perform even better at an extended distance today.
Later in the evening, you can also enjoy our regular midweek programme of eight races at Happy Valley. I will be especially watching the performances of Big Kahuna and Ocean Wide. Despite having drawn wide in his previous run at 1,200m in Happy Valley, Big Kahuna still managed to get a close second. This time he will be partnered by Douglas Whyte and enjoys a better draw of Gate 3. I'd love to see if Paul O'Sullivan, who just scored a double in Sunday's race at Sha Tin, can bring some luck to this horse tonight.
Having made his first appearance in a Class 3 race last time, Ocean Wide produced a decent run and finished the race third, a neck behind the winner. He has drawn nicely again and I won't be too surprised if he can show further progress this evening.
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