Last Sunday's meeting at Sha Tin saw the first leg of our four-year-old series get under way - the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Classic Mile - and it certainly lived up to expectations. I'm sure you'll have been as enthralled as I was with the impressive way in which Beauty Flash won this Group 1 event. Overcoming a difficult outside draw by gaining the lead straight from the jump, this young horse then burst away from his opponents in the home straight to claim victory in emphatic style.
Quite apart from Beauty Flash's fine performance, I enjoyed the atmosphere of this event a lot. Before the race, many of the Owners and their well-dressed friends gathered in the Parade Ring to meet the trainers and jockeys, creating a great sense of occasion. I'm sure they must have been feeling the tension but they looked happy and honoured to be taking part in this big race.
The great attention given by the connections could possibly attribute to the strong line-up of this year's four-year-old series, especially from some budding new stars like Beauty Flash, Chater Way, Brave Kid and Irian, who demonstrated some very encouraging performances in different races on Sunday. I look forward to seeing these strong prospects maintain their progress ahead of the Derby Trial next month and the Derby race itself in March.
Also getting under way soon will be this year's Asian Mile Challenge Series, which includes the Hong Kong's Champions Mile to be held in April. We will shortly be unveiling the entries for this year's series and I hope some of these young runners will be listed to enter too. So far as I know, the total number of Hong Kong entrants will exceed last year's 25. This increase not only shows that our Owners and trainers are giving more attention to this international series; it also illustrates the fact that our racehorses have become increasingly competent to challenge other top runners in the region.
Before then, we turn our focus back to Happy Valley as tonight's meeting sees the finale of our "Sassy Wednesdays" programme which will have the theme "Face Splendour". We've invited various accessory and beauty brands to exhibit their latest products and services on course. So I hope you'll all enjoy this glamorous programme, as well as the excitement of the racing actions.
For the eight races scheduled tonight, the Hong Kong Club Challenge Cup should be an interesting race. While I think it will be a battle between Moon Chaser and O'Reilly Magic, it also highlights the competition between their riders Douglas Whyte and Brett Prebble for the Jockey Challenge tonight. Both horses have performed consistently in Happy Valley this season and are well drawn, I hope they can produce another decent run. In addition, I think Clement Elite, again teamed up with his best partner Gerald Mosse, and Super Genki, with German champion jockey Andreas Suborics on board, are also worth of attention in this race.
In the Club Street Handicap, the unbeaten Tai Sing Yeh has won three consecutive races in Happy Valley this season and it appears that he will be the clear favourite in this race. I believe he's a good horse, but it will be his first time to tackle the distance of 1000m, and he's drawn wide to start the race from Gate 9. These two factors may pose some uncertainty for his chance tonight. I would not be too surprised if Union's Star or Plan B, who have both won at this course and distance in their previous starts, finish close in this race.
Comment
