Hi all, I'm now back in Hong Kong and returned from Germany early Thursday morning. Although it was just a short, three-day trip, I had some very enjoyable moments with my father, sister, children and other family members, and hope to see them again soon. Much as I love living and working in Hong Kong, I do miss my home country and my family sometimes.
A longer stay wasn't possible this time, though, as there are too many important things to attend to in Hong Kong at the moment – so it was straight back from Chek Lap Kok airport to my office at Happy Valley. Although our racing season has just started for two weeks, our Club colleagues have been busy in preparing different work projects, including the preparation for our showpiece race event – the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races in December.
One notable development that we announced earlier this week is a new arrangement for the three Cathay Pacific International Trials in November, which will now be opened up to overseas runners. In past years, some of the trainers participating in the International Races have expressed an interest in running their horses in these trials, so that they could bring them to Hong Kong earlier and get them in peak condition for the main events in December. Up to now, though, these three trial races have been restricted to local runners.
This year we've reviewed the situation and decided that a change of this policy would be beneficial to all parties. As most of the major races in the northern hemisphere, other than the Breeders' Cup, have been completed by mid-October, a significant number of our overseas contenders face a break of up to eight weeks before our international meeting on 13 December. By opening up the International Trials to overseas horses, we hope to give their trainers some extra options for helping their runners acclimatise to Hong Kong and prepare for the December events. However, we will limit the invited overseas horses to four in each of the trial races, so as not to restrict the participation of local runners.
I also believe this new measure will benefit our local racing fans. They can now preview these overseas runners in the flesh, running on our home turf, instead of having to rely on video images from the Internet. I'm sure it will help racegoers make a better assessment of their latest form and credentials. So let's see which will be the first overseas horses invited to compete in the November trials.
Before we look forward to this exciting prospect, though, we have a few more domestic race meetings to enjoy. At this afternoon's Sha Tin meeting, I think John Size should have a good chance of getting his first winner of the season. Among those contenders from the Size stable today, I shall be paying special attention to A Walk In The Park in the On Yam Handicap (2nd Section) and Appreciation in the Yan Chai Trophy as both the two four-year-olds have shown their talent in the class, let's see if they could win the first race in the season.
Besides, I shall be watching the performances of Ferro Beau in the Lei Muk Shue Handicap and Holey Dollar and Natural Flame in the Kwai Shing Handicap. Ferro Beau showed a good turn of foot in his first race this season, I believe he would deliver another decent performance when going back to the winning distance over 1400m. In the Kwai Shing Handicap, Holey Dollar won impressively in his last outing and Natural Flame is another up-and-coming four-year-old, so I will not be surprised if both of them perform well this afternoon.
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