Tomorrow is Mother’s Day in Hong Kong and I imagine that many of you have already made plans to celebrate with your family on this special day. I have enormous admiration for local mothers, as many of them have full- or part-time jobs in addition to taking care of their children as well as their families’ well being, and I've always found them to be very hard-working and committed.
Here in our Betting Division, which has hired the largest number of both full- and part-time staff members in the Jockey Club, we have more than 8,400 ladies now working as part-time staff, performing different roles at the racecourses, Off-Course Betting Branches and Telebet Centres. About 3,000 of them - nearly 40 per cent - are married, and many have young children to look after. We're happy the Club’s business operation provides them with suitable job opportunities that offer flexible hours and are based in their local areas. So that they can also bring in some extra income for their families.
At the Club headquarters, too, many of my female colleagues fulfil dual roles as mothers and breadwinners, and some even find time do volunteer work as well. Yet they are invariably just as capable and hard-working as their male counterparts. In fact, more than half of our female full-time staff are married. It's good that the Club is able to offer them a stable working environment in which they can pursue their career goals at the same time as balancing them with their family lives.
As a sports and entertainment operator, our peak business tends to fall on weekends, so it's inevitable that we have to ask some of our mothers to work on public holidays and sacrifice part of their family time. I'd like to take this opportunity of thanking them all for their great commitment and contributions.
As tomorrow is Mothers' Day, though, we've arranged for this weekend's race meeting to be brought forward to Saturday as usual, so that as many of our racing fans and staff can be free to celebrate this special date with their families tomorrow. I hope you will all have a great time with your children and families.
Appropriately enough, the feature race of today's meeting is the Queen Mother Memorial Cup, a Group 3 event honouring the late mother of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II. Known originally as just the Queen Mother's Cup, this race was proposed by our Stewards in 1980 as a way of celebrating her 80th birthday. Its first running was actually at Sandown Park in Britain the following year, before it became a regular fixture here in Hong Kong in 1982.
The "Queen Mum" was always a very popular royal figure in Britain, and you may know that she was also a very keen horse owner and racing enthusiast, especially for steeplechasing. Before she passed away in 2002, she was a regular visitor each year to the famous June meeting at Royal Ascot. So we are pleased to continue the running of this annual mile-and-a-half race in tribute to a true horse lover.
I expect this year’s race running in a good pace and I shall be keeping a particular eye on the performance of King Dancer. This improving four-year-old has taken a short break after finishing fifth in the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby in March. With Olivier Doleuze on board, he just needs to carry 114 pounds, which gives him a great advantage in this race. I think he will be the horse to beat. Nobody should overlook last year’s winner Mr Medici. Although he produced an off-style performance in the Audemars Piguet QEII Cup, this consistent runner definitely has the credential to claim the top prize. Let’s see if he will bounce back in this race. In addition, both Vigor Delight and Gallant Champion have proven stamina for the distance. They could also stage a challenge in this feature event.
In the Wong Cup Handicap, I think it will be a very competitive race. Glory Of India has already notched up a winner and a runner-up finish at 1800m this season. Featuring in the same distance today, I think this five-year-old runner should compete well. French import Mighty High made a notable debut at Happy Valley back in February as he ran eighth and just three lengths behind race winner. This time he will race at Sha Tin and I’ll see if he shows further improvement today. I am also interested to see if Jolly Good, who will compete in a Class 3 event in Hong Kong for the first time, and Bouncer, who has finished in the money in all his last five starts, could deliver good performance in this race.
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