I hope you all got a lot of enjoyment out of our Citi Champions and Chater Cup race meeting at Sha Tin last Sunday. The weather was perfect and we saw a really gripping battle between Viva Pataca and Thumbs Up as they fought tooth and nail in the feature race the whole way down the home straight.
Though our reigning Stayer of the Year eventually snatched victory by a neck, collecting the seventh Group One win of his stellar career, I'd say the performance of Thumbs Up was equally eye-catching in its own way. He is still quite a young horse and I would rate him as a very prominent contender for our top local events at the middle and classic distances when he turns to five next season. As for Collection, in my opinion he came to win this race but sadly he did not stay the distance and had to settle for third place. However, I still believe he will be a very good horse at 1800 to 2000m in future.
I was especially delighted to see how many racing fans came down to the trackside as the two runners were returning to the unsaddling area to applaud the outstanding performances of Viva Pataca and Thumbs Up, as well as their riders Weichong Marwing and Brett Prebble. The fans in our special cheering zone also added a lot of sound and colour to the occasion. It's good to see our racing fans coming to racecourse giving these top-class performances the recognition they deserve, and I'm sure it gives the horses and jockeys that important extra bit of momentum in the final straight. The wonderful on-course atmosphere and the exciting experience of a day out at the races make it attractive and enjoyable for many race-goers and in particular, tourists coming from every parts of the world.
Night-time racing at our city track always has its own fascination, and you will find a touch of added glamour at this season's three remaining race nights at Happy Valley, as we will be hosting a special promotion with a number of special attractions and offers for racegoers. It's a great opportunity, perhaps, to bring along a group of friends who might not normally come racing with you and have a fun night together.
After tonight's races, our two leading jockeys Douglas Whyte and Brett Prebble will be flying to Tokyo to prepare for riding Armada and Sight Winner in the Yasuda Kinen this coming Sunday. The two Hong Kong contenders have apparently settled in quite well, so I hope they can show their peak form in this leading Japanese mile event, which has twice been won by Hong Kong horses in the past.
Doug and Brett have something else in common as you voted them your Most Popular Jockeys of the season in 2008 and 2007 respectively. Both of them are again nominated - alongside a number of newer names - for this year's voting, which began on Monday. Voting for Most Popular Horse also began on Monday and I'm delighted to hear that over 4000 people have already cast their votes in the two contests in just one day. I hope many more of you will do the same before the voting closes on 15 June.
Among the eight races on the card tonight, I will be paying my attention to Loyal Army and Asian Citrus in the 1st section of the Lung Fu Shan Handicap. Loyal Army made two decent runs at Happy Valley recently and I hope he can maintain his consistent performance tonight. If the track is affected by rain, Asian Citrus, who won on heavy going in his debut in Australia at the age of two, may well be the horse to benefit in this race.
The 2nd section of the Lung Fu Shan Handicap is also a very interesting race as I think Marvellous has a nice chance to get trainer Peter Ng his 13th win of the season, but he will be facing strong competition from other in-form runners like Ganbaria, Super Plus and Treasure Raiders.
Peter's other runner Dashing Champion has a good draw in the Pat Sin Leng Handicap, giving him another outstanding hope to snatch his 13th win, but I think Clovis may instead give another veteran local trainer Alex Wong his 12th victory of the season, as the horse has had nice performances at the mile distance. Holiday Sun and Fujian Prince are two other solid contenders who are able to get some decent results in this tight race.
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