After all the hard work and planning, we've finally entered our International Races Week. Over the next five days, you can enjoy a series of top quality racing events, starting with the Cathay Pacific International Jockeys' Championship at Happy Valley tonight.
Unusually for Hong Kong in early December, the weather has been quite damp and cool so far this week, more akin to conditions in Europe. Depending on what happens in the next few days, that could help some of the horses and disadvantage others.
I can feel the atmosphere and tension looming and I have been paying attention to the latest news and information on the other local and overseas runners. So too are the racing journalists, who are also now starting to arrive in force. Several Japanese TV crews and media are already here and have been closely following the workouts of Sunday's three Japanese contenders.
Although the International Races Week means a very hectic working schedule for me and many other people at the Club, I don't think any of us mind that at all, because we all look forward to this special occasion so much. For me, it's not only the thrill of seeing some of the world's leading horses and jockeys in action on our home turf. This time of the year also provides a great opportunity to meet overseas horsemen and exchange our news and ideas on the sport.
You may have seen in the racing media that legendary British rider Lester Piggott is currently in town and will attend the International Races this weekend. So too is former HK trainer Neville Begg, whose son Grahame is now keeping up the family tradition and has brought All Silent here to contest the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint. It's been a while since I last met him, but he looks as energetic as ever. I'm sure Neville's vast knowledge and experience of Hong Kong racing will help him give his son good advice ahead of Sunday's race.
It was also really nice to meet Andreas Suborics again on Monday at the jockey allocation ceremony for the Cathay Pacific International Jockeys' Championship. Andreas will be a familiar face to many of you as this Austrian-born jockey has partnered a number of German horses in our international races over the past decade, most notably in 2001 when he rode Silvano to victory in the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup. He has since enjoyed some very successful years in Germany, where he has been crowned champion jockey three times.Andreas told me he spent the past month in Japan where he rode four winners in eight meetings. He is looking forward to coming back to Hong Kong in January and will ride here for four months. This will be the first time in seven years that he has done a winter stint in Hong Kong, the last being 2002/03 season, so I hope you will give him your strong support.
While Andreas is delighted to be joining the crop of top riders who will compete for the International Jockeys Championship under floodlights on Wednesday, there's been some bad news for French rider Christophe Lemaire, as last Sunday he was given a four-day suspension for careless riding in a race at Hanshin Racecourse in Japan. This is a great setback for Christophe as it will prevent him from riding in Sunday's international races, where he originally had a number of engagements on board the French contenders. However, he can still feature in tonight's jockeys' series, so please help to cheer Christophe up by giving him some extra support.
Don't forget that tonight's races will start a bit earlier than usual at 7:00 pm, so make sure you reach Happy Valley on time, to ensure you don't miss any of the exciting racing action. For the first leg of the CXIJC, I shall be paying my special attention to Bobo Win. This Derek Cruz-trained veteran runner performed very consistently at Happy Valley this season as he snatched two runner-up finishes. He was drawn to partner Christophe Lemaire tonight and I hope he can produce another great run. However, Harry Harry with Japanese rider Yasunari Iwata, and Perfect Ten with our home-grown jockey Howard Cheng, are also capable to stage a challenge in this race.
In the second leg, both Master Dreamer and Fortune Warrior made some nice runs earlier this season, they can well give their jockeys John Murtagh and Joe Talamo the chance to get glory tonight. but they will have to first face off with Ryan Moore's Victory Mascot – the horse that won splendidly in his last start. Meanwhile, I think Juggernaut, to be ridden by Australian rider Hugh Bowman, could be the runner with some advantage in the final leg of our challenge series as he's the only frontrunner in this race. But both Moon Chaser and Champion Lad performed very well recently and I think Suborics and our star female jockey – Chantal Sutherland from Canada – will surely try their best to get a winner in this mile event.
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