The Chinese New Year has been quite a busy period for me as apart from attending the Lunar New Year race meeting on the third day and the 18 Districts Cup raceday last weekend, I also had a few spring receptions to attend, including one at the Convention and Exhibition Centre last Friday. As I knew there was a Wedding Expo taking place in the adjacent hall and that the Club was one of the exhibitors, I went there to check it out and meet some of my Catering Department colleagues, who look after the Club's special wedding and banqueting business.
It's been our aim to develop the racecourses as true multi-function venues, and non-raceday banqueting services are an integral part of that, as many of the boxes and restaurants at Happy Valley and Sha Tin have elegant settings and great views. Our wedding services have also become especially popular in recent years, as we can offer the newly-weds a horse and carriage for photo-taking, which adds a very romantic touch to the occasion and is something unique to the Club.
I was pleased to see that a lot of the Wedding Expo visitors came into our booth to ask our staff details of the Club's banquet services and packages.
While I was chatting with my colleagues, Catherine and Man - a couple who have already booked one of our venues at Happy Valley Racecourse next year - saw me and asked if I could take a photo with them! Of course, I was very happy to do so and I offered them my congratulations. I found them to be a very cheerful couple and I hope they will enjoy a happy life together in the future.
While I was chatting with my colleagues, Catherine and Man - a couple who have already booked one of our venues at Happy Valley Racecourse next year - saw me and asked if I could take a photo with them! Of course, I was very happy to do so and I offered them my congratulations. I found them to be a very cheerful couple and I hope they will enjoy a happy life together in the future.Getting back to the racecourse, there should be some exciting racing in store at Happy Valley tonight, especially for connections of the top 10 horses on the CSL Million Challenge leaderboard, as this five-month series will have its finale this evening.
At the time when we commenced this Happy Valley series back in 2003/04 racing season, we aimed at attracting more high class runners to participate in Happy Valley races, instead of merely focusing their campaign at Sha Tin, so as to make our Happy Valley races to be more competitive and attractive to our racing customers.
This concept proved to be very successful over the years and the outstanding performance of Super Satin, who is now positioned third in this season's CSL Million Challenge, ranked as a notable example this term. Having snatched three winners at Happy Valley earlier this season, this four-year-old elite still produced some promising results when he later raced at Sha Tin again. He has won a 1800m race there before finished second in the Hong Kong Group 2 Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby Trial last time and is now setting his target at next month's Derby.
Although Super Satin will not contest for the Million Challenge tonight, I would say this season's series remains very competitive. Apart from current leader Loyal Army, four other runners - namely Strawberry, Nugget Warrior, Norman Invader and Good Strike - still have the chance to claim the winner's bonus of HK$650,000 tonight and a total of nine runners (Loyal Army, Strawberry, Nugget Warrior, Norman Invader, Good Strike, Great Achievement, Tai Sing Yeh, Soviet Pearl, Our Lucky Baby) are still in the hunt for a top-three place. So I look forward to seeing some thrilling battles at the Valley tonight.
Among the CSL Million Challenge contenders, I shall be watching the performances of Our Lucky Baby in the Briar Handicap. This Hong Kong International Sale graduate has scored six winners at Happy Valley's 1200m race over the past two seasons. Although he failed to perform in his last three starts at Sha Tin, he will be returning to his favourite track tonight and I think he should be in the finish. Perfect Style won in an impressive fashion when he defeated Norman Invader in his penultimate start. Returning to his winning distance tonight, I think he should be capable to challenge Our Lucky Baby in this event. With a fast pace expected in this race, I think it will make it difficult for consistent runners like Norman Invader and Royal Flush, who are both drawn wide in this event. However, both of them still have the credential to finish close in this race.
In the Kwai Fong Handicap, Tai Sing Yeh snatched three winners at the Valley earlier this season, but he just had a fair performance when running at the shorter distance of 1000m in his last start. He'll be back to 1200m this time and despite he was drawn to start the race at Gate 10, I think he will still be the horse to beat. The CSL Million Challenge current leader Loyal Army is better drawn in this race and he should have a good run on the pace. However, I can see plenty of opposition from horses like fellow Million Challenge contenders Nugget Warrior and Good Strike, as well as Grand Profit, who scored his first victory in Hong Kong at the Valley last time.
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