Hi all, there was a sporting event that gave me some disappointment in midweek. It was not about racing but the defeat of the German national football team to England in an international friendly held in Berlin in the early hours of Thursday. As both teams were missing key players like Michael Ballack, Torsten Frings, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, it forced both Joachim Low and Fabio Capello to field two rather inexperienced line-ups for the match. Sadly, the general performance of the German team was below average and they seemed to lack composure. I think Low will need to put more effort into configuring his team and making necessary adjustments if they are to maintain their winning record in the World Cup qualifiers.
Amidst of recent economic downturn, we all in the Club are also putting great effort for the sustaining development of our racing business. Although we observed in recent race meetings that the average turnover has already slipped by some percentage points, I'm pleased that the average number of on-course attendance remains pretty stable. It shows that our racegoers still enjoy our exciting races and find it a fun place to go. While it duly reflects that providing great entertainment to all racegoers being another core value of racing, we will continue to bring more relevant on-course entertainment programmes to our racing customers in the future.
That also explains why we are gearing up our preparation for the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races and we intend making it as a racing carnival. While you all can enjoy four exciting international races on December 14, we have also arranged several exciting on-course programmes, like an opening show featuring Cantopop diva Joey Yung, and a magic performance by Australian magicians Michael Boyd and Cathie Castillo. We will also stage our merchandise booth with a series of souvenirs exclusively designed for the international races. And for sure, the pyrotechnic show at our closing ceremony will also be something not to be missed.
But before our international event to be held next month, tomorrow at Sha Tin we will feature the running of the Cathay Pacific International Mile Trial and Cathay Pacific International Sprint Trial. Both races will be giving our elite horses at sprinter-miler distances like Armada and Good Ba Ba the chance of a final tune-up.
Over the past few years, our local runners have performed extremely well in the shorter distances of the international races, with the likes of Silent Witness, Sacred Kingdom, Absolute Champion, All Thrills Too and Natural Blitz helping us rack up six consecutive victories in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint. Prolific milers The Duke and Good Ba Ba have also achieved back-to-back victories for the home team in the past two editions of the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile.
While proven horses like Good Ba Ba, Armada and Green Birdie will be using tomorrow's trials as their final preparation, other rising stars like Enthused, Lucky Quality and Sight Winner will join these races for their first Group 2 outing of their career, so I think these two races are definitely not to be missed. However, I'm sorry to see that defending champion Sacred Kingdom will be absent from the sprint trial having sustained minor injuries during training. I hope he can return to top form for the main event next month.
After all, I think Good Ba Ba should still be hard to beat in the Cathay Pacific International Mile Trial. Comparing with his last race, the six-year-old is better treated at the weights this time. I believe he will give an even better performance tomorrow. Besides, Egyptian Ra ran really well in his last two outings and I won't be surprised if he can finish again in the first two. In the Cathay Pacific International Sprint Trial, I will be looking forward to see the performance of Green Birdie. The son of Catbird delivered a good turn of foot winning the Premier Bowl last time. From a good draw of five tomorrow, let's see if he can produce another fantastic performance.
Meanwhile, I will also keep an eye on Danesis in the Cheung Sha Handicap. Danesis ran a promising fifth in his first up run in the season after a four-month break and the four-year-old should improve on that run and deliver better performance tomorrow.
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