Last week, our apprentice jockey Derek Leung was forced to withdraw from two race meetings as he was suffering from asthma. He is indisposed for this evening's races at Happy Valley for the same reason. The news has given me some concern, as this talented young lad has already bagged 21 winners in his debut season. Like another of our new apprentices, Matthew Chadwick, he has shown great natural riding skills, and sprung a number of big surprises on the local racing scene this season.
In fact, a considerable number of top athletes have been found to suffer from asthma, but most of them can still perform very well at the top level. England footballer Paul Scholes, NBA player Dennis Rodman and German cyclist Jan Ullrich are just a few examples of elite sportsmen who are confirmed to have this medical condition. However, I know that if medical consultants and physicians can provide these athletes with appropriate treatment and care, it will not pose any significant problems or hamper their careers.
Although Derek will again be absent from our races tonight, I've learnt from the Club doctor that he is already getting much better in the past few days. However, we don't want to take risks over his safety and allow him to ride when he's not 100 percent fit. That's why we've made the decision to delay his return. I hope Derek will recover fully very soon.
Like many of the vigorous sport, racing can be dangerous. That's why, safety of our horses and jockeys has always be a paramount consideration of the Club's Racing Panel and stipendiary stewards, who also strive to ensure complete fairness and integrity in every race. I would say this is absolutely not an easy job, as it requires extensive knowledge and experience of the sport as well as a great eye for detail, as the performances of a dozen or more horses and jockeys have to be closely monitored stride-by-stride throughout each race.
After our races last Saturday, I joined our Chief Stipendiary Steward Jamie Stier and Executive Director of Racing Bill Nader to meet our media friends and inform them that Jamie will stand down at the end of the season after working in his current post for more than six years. Personally, I think Jamie is a great professional who dedicated himself to the work as Stipendiary Steward.
Of course, there will always be occasions when some other parties and stakeholders have their own viewpoints on judgments and decisions made by the Racing Panel, while some of them have even written to me to express their views. I hope you will continue to give us your suggestions and opinion, telling us what areas we can improve in future. Overall, however, I believe that the majority of our racing public does have great faith in the judgments of our Racing Panel, and I know for certain that the integrity of Hong Kong racing is regarded very highly elsewhere in the world.
I am sure Jamie and his team will continue to work to their best for the remaining 14 meetings this season and I hope you will continue to give our racing officials your strong support. For our night races at Happy Valley tonight, I will be watching the performances of Asian Citrus and Team Work. Asian Citrus has snatched his first win in Hong Kong in a 1200m race at Happy Valley last time. He will be running at the same distance again tonight and let's see if this in-form horse will produce another decent run.
For Team Work, this Me Tsui Trainer Syndicate-owned runner lacked a bit of luck in last run as he had to settle for a close third at just a neck margin behind the winner. Olivier Doleuze will be riding him again and I hope the horse will perform even better this evening.
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