I'm sure you've all been following closely the news about the terrible earthquake that took place in Qinghai Province on 14 April, a catastrophe that has already claimed over 2,000 lives, with thousands more sustaining serious injuries and many others still missing.
Like many of you, I was especially sad to hear that Hong Kong volunteer Wong Fuk-wing was among the fatalities. Wong was working as a volunteer at an orphanage in Qinghai, and although he was unharmed when the initial quake struck, he bravely returned to the collapsed structure of the orphanage and successfully rescued three children and a teacher from the rubble. When he was attempting to save another two trapped teachers from the debris, however, a strong aftershock caused the rest of the structure to crumble and Wong lost his life.
I was deeply moved by Wong’s selfless and heroic act, which to me represents the ultimate sacrifice for humanitarian causes. Let me take this chance to express my condolences to his family and friends for the loss of their loved one.
Today has been declared an official day of mourning and the SAR Government will host a special ceremony to pay tribute to the Qinghai earthquake victims. We at the Club will play our part by flying all flags at half-mast at our racecourses, headquarters and other buildings.
As Hong Kong’s largest charity contributor, we also feel we should offer swift and timely support to those affected by the disaster, particularly taking into consideration the high altitude of Qinghai Province which is making the rescue and relief efforts extremely difficult.
We have made an immediate donation of HK$2 million to the Red Cross Society of China to support their relief efforts, and have already passed this to them through the Central Government Liaison Office in Hong Kong earlier today. We are now also working on additional donations, so as to give further support to all those concerned. 
In fact, we did initially consider whether to cancel or postpone tonight's race meeting as a mark of respect to those affected. You may recall that we did so in May 2008, in mourning for the Sichuan earthquake victims. On that occasion, however, we had more than two days to put the necessary changes in place and advise everyone concerned, as that race meeting fell on the third day of the nationwide mourning period.
In this case, all the meeting logistics are already well under way. By the time we learnt from the announcement of nationwide mourning yesterday afternoon, it was less than 36 hours from the start of the race meeting tonight. With this tight time frame, it makes us very difficult to cancel or postpone the races tonight.
We are also conscious that a cancellation or postponement would create severe losses for many small businesses and individuals who are closely associated with racing, not to mention the loss of some HK$100 million in tax revenue and our eventual surplus amounts that could be used for community projects. So we feel that going ahead with the race meeting remains the right and proper thing to do.
We will, however, observe a minute's silence before the first race to remember the sacrifices made by our local hero Wong Fuk-wing and all other earthquake victims.
I hope you will come to Happy Valley early tonight to show your support.
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