The continuation of racing in a safe and secure environment remains the Club’s overarching objective and I am extremely grateful and thankful for the support and dedication we have received from those within the Hong Kong ‘Racing Bubble.’
Our sport has been challenged as never before but, through the incredible determination of everyone involved, we have been able to continue racing without causing any risks to the public or any of our members, employees or customers in line with our guiding principles.
We have now further increased our daily PCR testing for 1350 people inside the Racing Bubble, while there are a further 800 people who also undergo PCR tests three days a week. Family members of those within the bubble are also able to be tested. This frequent testing regime allows us to quickly identify potential positives and minimise risks across the entire group.
Allied to that, with the support of our incredible medical partners, we are able to implement highly efficient overnight sample collection and laboratory testing, tracing and tracking in the event of a positive case followed by a quick isolation of the infected person.
The thing that has stood out for me is the willingness of those involved in the racing bubble to make personal sacrifices, including trainers, jockeys, stable staff and also other Club employees.
I am proud of the extremely dedicated Club team in the Business Continuity Committee, especially Andrew Harding, Claus Weidner, K L Cheng, Stephen Higgins, Raymond Tam and Moray Taylor-Smith – who, on top of their daily responsibilities, nearly every day have late-night additional Zoom meetings with myself to assess the situation and to plan the next day’s activities to keep everybody safe and our operations going.
We are really united by this passion and purpose and we want to keep all of our participants safe and to continue to operate in a safe manner.
Despite all the logistical challenges, we were able to get support for the Cross-Border transport to enable horses to move between Sha Tin and Conghua and we are very thankful to the Guangdong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen authorities and their officials for the continued cooperation and assistance. We have done everything to honour that trust – and we will continue to do so.
The dedication of our drivers and travelling grooms who accompany horses to and from our Mainland base at Conghua shows the level of determination of everybody to fulfil our purpose. Each team is fully isolated away from family and friends for 14 days in a closed-loop situation and must undergo PCR tests every day before leaving Hong Kong. They are then away on three weeks duty, which means they are away from their family for five weeks followed by a one-week family reunion before they start the next cycle.
Despite all these relentless efforts, we are facing the unprecedented challenge of the fifth wave of COVID-19 and significant uncertainties lie ahead of us. In the circumstances, we could not be comfortably satisfied to invite international visitors for FWD Champions Day next month.
The Club has been successful in hosting overseas racing participants in the LONGINES HKIR in 2020 and 2021, and FWD Champions Day in 2021 utilising a tightly controlled closed loop system. But to keep this closed loop system for overseas racing participants under the current special situation will be very resource intensive.
At the same time, we also face some uncertainty about a potential Compulsory Universal Testing (CUT) scheme – and the timing of it as well. Looking at the complexity and uncertainty we have, this why we have decided not to have overseas runners in the FWD Champions Day because the impact on our operations of having to implement our very manpower intensive separation requirements for overseas participants would detract from our key objectives to keep everybody safe and continue racing to fulfil our purpose of making contributions to the community. As it is always the Club’s overarching principle of protecting the safety of our employees and stakeholders, we conclude that hosting overseas participants would not be practicable. The three major Group 1 races will be restricted to Hong Kong-based horses only.
At this stage we have to concentrate on one major issue and that is to continue racing, which is absolutely critical and, with all the sacrifices people have made, that has to remain our main focus.
At Happy Valley on Wednesday night, the eighth race is the Class 3 Hing Tung Handicap with an expanded rating band of 85-60 for the 1000 metre sprint.
This is a good opportunity for Nervous Witness to regain his winning ways as he will be equipped with a crossed nose band for his second attempt over the course and distance. He trialled well with the gear change last week and has drawn a good gate with Zac Purton named to ride. I expect Nervous Witness to use his high speed to make the running and he is a win and place chance.
Winner Method returns off an injury-related absence and has trialled well in his preparation. He appears set for an improved performance and has drawn the rail with Karis Teetan for his first race at Happy Valley. He will be in the box seat with dead aim on Nervous Witness and is a strong place chance.
The Runner is in career best form, stringing together four straight races where he has finished in the Quinella, and will get a nice run from inside midfield for Blake Shinn. He is a place chance along with Special M.
While Special M was a bit disappointing last time, he raced wide without cover chasing the speed when Whizz Kid was an impressive winner. Special M will be ridden this time by Joao Moreira and should be well positioned behind Nervous Witness.
A very interesting runner is the three-year-old Atomic Force, who has a high rating of 114 internationally, which makes him one of the highest-rated horses imported to Hong Kong this season. He was a very impressive winner of a Group 3 and consequently a Group 2 in France over 1200m on good to yielding ground.
His rating of 84 will not make it easy for him when taking his young age into consideration, but he has shown some promise and is a horse to watch.
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