Hi everybody. By the time this article gets posted my blog, I should have reached London's Heathrow Airport, en route to Ascot Racecourse where I plan to attend the final day of this year's Royal Ascot meeting later today. I've attended this historic meeting a couple of times before and always look forward to it as it has a wonderful on-course atmosphere, even it is a little bit too much old-world charm with morning suit and top hat. I'm hoping to see our top sprinter Sacred Kingdom become the second Hong Kong-based horse to win the prestigious Golden Jubilee Stakes, following the trail blazed by Cape Of Good Hope in 2005.
After his outstanding performance in Singapore, it's encouraging that Sacred Kingdom's connections have decided to have a shot at this race – the most important springtime sprint event in Europe. Before I set off for England, I saw some photos of Sacred Kingdom's final workouts. He looks to be in a perfect shape despite his long journey of 20-plus hours, and it's great to hear that he's settled so well into his training base. It's never easy to find a horse that loves travelling that much, and getting one of such class is even more difficult.
Unusually, there hasn't been much rain in England over the past few days, and the good-to-firm going should suit Sacred Kingdom a lot. Having drawn fairly and to start Saturday's race from Gate 8, Sacred Kingdom will be facing several proven speed machines like JJ The Jet Plane from South Africa, British sprinter King's Apostle, as well as other top sprinters from Europe and the US. But on current evidence, he looks to be in great form and I hope he will do Hong Kong racing proud. My main worry is how he adapts to the course which is not as flat as Hong Kong and more undulating which can get horses out of their rhythm if they are not used to it.
Our only regret, as most of you know by now, is that our Hong Kong racing fans won't be able to place bets on this race, as we failed to get an approval from the Government for an extra simulcast beyond our existing quota of ten a season. You might be wondering why we can't bring you live TV coverage of the race anyway. The reason is that if we did so, it would provide an easy and convenient opportunity for illegal bookmakers to fill the void. This scenario is one we don't want to see happen.
However, we don't want to deprive racing fans altogether of their chance to watch this important race, which is why we've arranged a delayed replay in our racing programmes later tonight. So you'll still be able to see how Sacred Kingdom performs in this International Group One race.
Anyway, I hope there'll be some great news from Royal Ascot later today. After the Ascot race, I'll rush back for getting on an evening flight, so that I'm not going to miss the race meeting at Sha Tin tomorrow. Let me remind you that two new jockeys – Aaron Gryder from the US, and William Pike from Australia – will also be riding in Hong Kong starting from tomorrow's races. I've learnt that both of them have been adapting very well and offered their praises to our facilities at Sha Tin. I hope you could join me to offer your great support to these two new faces.
And among the 10 races in tomorrow's card, I'll be keeping an eye on the performances of Majestic Heart, Dynamic Blitz and Fleet Command. Majestic Heart has been so consistent this term with seven from nine starts finishing in the first five. With Matthew Chadwick on board and his claiming advantage, let's see if the four-year-old can record his second win over the mile event in the HKU Centennial Campus Handicap.
In the HKU Jockey Club Clinical Research Centre Handicap, Dynamic Blitz won so promising in his recent two outings over 1200M on dirt. Although several other contenders in the race like Royal Pericles, Bear Macho and Warrior had a good record at the course and distance, in my opinion Dynamic Blitz should still be difficult to beat.
In the HKU Jockey Club Building For Interdisciplinary Research Handicap, I would be expecting another decent performance from Fleet Command. The four-year-old finished in the money in all of his recent six starts but was unlucky for not having a break-through. He ran a good second to Romping last time, let's see if he can improve further tomorrow. Besides, I will be expecting a good run of Irish Jig and the newcomer Fair Trade.
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