By the time you read today's blog, I am on a flight to Japan, getting ready to attend the 32nd Asian Racing Conference in Tokyo next week. The theme of this year's conference is "New Horizons for Racing" and I think it will provide a perfect opportunity for representatives of controlling bodies across the region to get together and catch up on the latest racing developments in Asia and around the world.
At a time when many countries in the region are experiencing the impact of the global financial meltdown, I believe in my capacity as Chairman of the Asian Racing Federation that it will be essential for the 20 federation members to work together to find ways to tackle these upcoming challenges, and explore future opportunities for the racing industry.
The search for a new direction in racing will be especially vital for our racing industry, and those in countries like Japan, Australia and New Zealand, where racing and other related businesses make up a significant portion of economic activity. So by sharing our opinions and experience at this conference in areas like the current global racing environment, racing operations, marketing and wagering, I hope we can map out certain directions and ideas that can help all racing industries in the region cope with the challenges they now face at this extraordinary time.
Although the economic downturn will undoubtedly have some impact on the Club's business and turnover, we have no plans to reduce the donations we pledge to different community projects each year, and are even extending our contributions to the Mainland. Earlier this week, the Club confirmed donations totalling 400 million yuan for the implementation of four reconstruction projects in the medical and education sectors in Sichuan Province, as part of our effort to assist victims of the severe earthquake that shook the region back in May.
As our Chairman John Chan observed at the media briefing on these projects, the Club's role in the community becomes even more important at times of difficulties. While the Club will do its best to maintain its charity contributions, it is vital that the Club, as a not-for-profit organisation, can be allowed to maintain the sustainability of its racing business and its long-term growth in the foreseeable future.
In terms of sustainability, it is always our intention to bring in new elements and competition into the sport, which includes bringing new faces to our jockeys' line-up. The Club has just issued riding licences to two French-based riders and they will be showing us their great riding skills in the coming months. The duo are Christophe Soumillon, who I'm sure is already very familiar to you all, and Johan Victoire - a 21-year-old Frenchman currently based in Chantilly and riding for champion trainer André Fabre.
Johan will be riding in Hong Kong for the first time and although his name will be unfamiliar to most local racing fans, I can tell you that he ranked 4th in this year's French jockeys championship, winning more than 100 races. He started his riding career in France in 2004 and has shown particular improvement this year, most prominently securing his maiden Group One victory in September at the Grosser Preis von Baden in Germany, aboard German Derby winner Kamsin. So let's see if he can make an impact during his three-month stay in Hong Kong.
By the way, I'm pleased to see that the two local apprentices making their debuts here this season - Derek Leung and Keith Yeung - are also doing quite well after the first 15 meetings. Derek has already snatched his maiden win in Hong Kong, as well as getting six place finishes, while Keith has earned place finishes on two occasions. It's great to see them getting off the mark in such a short period of time.
Meanwhile, two more apprentice jockeys, namely Matthew Chadwick and Ben So, have also been granted riding licences recently. These two young riders have shown promising talent when they were receiving training in Australia, as Matthew once rode four winners on a single raceday in June, while Ben rode 12 winners in total during his stay and training in West Australia.
Since the Club's Racing Development Board was established in 2006, once our apprentice jockey trainees have completed their foundation training in Hong Kong, we have been deploying them to receive further training and acquire more experience at races overseas. The great performances of these home-grown talents show that this direction has proved very effective. Matthew and Ben will soon be joining our home team and participating in formal races. So I hope you can give your full support to these local rookies.
Although I'll be absent from the race meeting at Sha Tin today, I'll be closely watching the performances of National Glory, Young Elite and Lucky Quality. I like National Glory as this three-year-old showed nice progress in his past two runs, and it appears that a longer distance will also be suitable for him. But Young Elite really impressed me last time and I hope to see this Racing Club-owned runner repeating his strong late spurt in today's race.
As you know, after the massive victory last Wednesday, the connections of Lucky Quality have already revealed their strong desire to enter their horse in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint. Given to his great form at the all-weather track, let's see if he can produce another fantastic performance when he carries the top-weight to run at the same distance today.
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