HKJC CEO Blog

Last night I took a late flight from Hong Kong and a few hours ago I hopped off the plane in London.  Soon I’ll be on my way to Ascot to attend the first day of the Royal Ascot meeting where, for the first time in three years, there will be a Hong Kong participant,…

Able Friend is now in England for the Queen Anne Stakes and yesterday he had his final fast gallop at Newmarket ahead of the race next Tuesday.  From what I hear it was an easy blow-out and he appears to be in very good order.  The reports have been positive from the time he landed…

Global racing welcomed the emergence of a new superstar last weekend as American Pharoah won the Belmont Stakes in New York, becoming the first US Triple Crown winner in 37 years.  I recapped the race footage on Sunday morning and while American Pharoah was once again allowed to dictate the pace, his sectionals were progressively faster, a relative rarity in…

Reigning champion trainer Caspar Fownes enjoyed a great evening at Happy Valley in midweek and the results helped him in his cause to defend his crown.  That night he scored a treble and narrowed the gap on championship leader John Moore to just a single win. Another outstanding trainer, John Size, is stalking closely in…

Last Sunday we staged the season’s final G1 contest, the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup, and the high-class contenders produced one of the most exciting finishes seen in any of our top-level races this season.  It was a very close call on the line and Helene Super Star was the one who emerged the…

Although we are approaching the end of the season there is no winding down just yet as my schedule remains full.  Last week I spent two days in South Korea and I can tell you it certainly wasn’t for shopping or sightseeing. I was there, invited by the Korea Racing Authority in my capacity as…

After the rainfall at Happy Valley last Wednesday our racing surface was put to the test once again on Sunday, this time at Sha Tin, as unstable weather affected our race meeting.  The rain was particularly hard during Race 9.  If you were at the racecourse or followed our live racing that day, or have…

A strong rainstorm affected Hong Kong before our midweek race meeting on Wednesday, with the Observatory issuing the red rainstorm warning about two hours before the start of our races.  Certainly Happy Valley was not spared from that as we had recorded a total rainfall of about 43 millimetres there, in just five and a…

The performances of Hong Kong’s runners in Singapore on Sunday are still very vivid in my mind. The Hong Kong team did not disappoint our racing fans, and I think it is right for me to say that all five of our runners at Kranji Racecourse that evening gave us plenty to be proud of, particularly…

In my blog a week ago I mentioned Joao Moreira was just six wins away from matching Douglas Whyte’s all-time record of 114 wins in a season.  We didn’t need to wait too long as it just took Joao three race meetings to equal Douglas’ mark, thanks to his hat-trick of wins at Happy Valley on Wednesday.   Joao is a driven competitor so it…