We had a busy but meaningful start to 2009 on Thursday, with two special events taking place at our traditional New Year's Day race meeting. First, we bid farewell to legendary horse Bullish Luck, who has brought tremendous enjoyment to our racing fans in the past six years, as well as much glory and honour to his Owner and Trainer. Then we made a speedy donation of $2 million to St. James' Settlement to support its People's Food Bank.
I was told by the Chief Executive Officer of St. James' Settlement, Michael Lai, that the food bank was providing food to over 1,000 needy people in November, a figure that has doubled since the financial crisis began in September - and what was most alarming of all was that should this situation continue, their rice reserves would soon run out.
Although we at the Club are also seeing the impact of the financial turmoil and facing a decrease in income this year, we made a prompt and critically important decision to pledge our support to the People's Food Bank to help them overcome this difficult time and ensure a continuous food supply to the needy over the Chinese New Year period.
I was delighted to hear from racing fans and the media after the donation ceremony in the Parade Ring that they recognised and appreciated the role of the Club in meeting the community's needs, especially in providing support to the disadvantaged. To me, this is what gives the Club a unique role in the daily lives of Hong Kong people.
However, none of our community contributions would be possible without the success of our horse racing operations, and in turn, horse racing in Hong Kong could not be successful without the support and participation of our loyal racing fans. I know that some of you who put your bets on Jockey Darren Beadman in Jockey Challenge In-Play on Thursday (1 January) were quite upset when Beadman had to stand down from the rest of the card because of his leg injury.
I want to reassure you that the Club has not taken this concern lightly. I called a meeting first thing on Friday morning to review the case and we came up with a quick decision to refund those Jockey Challenge In-Play bets made on Beadman during the period between the pool reopening for betting after Race 5 and then closing again at the start of Race 6.
I think this is very important for a number of reasons, but particularly in terms of the perception of fairness of the game. Also, I and my colleagues in the Betting and Racing divisions were of the view that we need to improve the check and balance in the procedure and took the decision that should there be similar occurrences in future where there is a likelihood that a jockey will not be able to fulfil his riding engagement(s) during a meeting, betting on Jockey Challenge will be suspended until matters relating to the remaining rides are clear.
I believe this decision addresses the issue of protecting the interests of our customers and I hope you find it a satisfactory arrangement. However, our work will not stop there. We shall all be looking at all aspects of the betting rules and the points mechanism to enhance the format of Jockey Challenge.
Looking ahead to tomorrow's races at Sha Tin, among the 10 races we've scheduled, I will be looking forward to a renewal of the battle between Blaze King and Tuscan Spirit in the Hung Shui Kiu Handicap. Both the two 3-year-olds are promising imports from New Zealand and have shown good speed over 1000M on the straight course.
Besides, I think the Pok Oi Cup will be a very good and exciting race with Berio, Dumbarton Rock and Something Special battling it out. These 4-year-olds delivered decent performance in their last start finishing either first or second, let's see whether they could improve further in the feature race tomorrow.
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