Hong Kong’s season opener roaring sucess

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Supreme Win all round as season kicks off with bumper attendance and high turnover

08/09/2012

at Sha Tin today, Saturday 8 September, attracted the biggest first-day crowd for almost 20 years as 63,570 race fans turned up to enjoy the 10-race card, pushing turnover for the fixture to its highest point since 2000. Hong Kong SAR Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor struck the ceremonial gong to mark the beginning of the 2012/13 season.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Chief Executive Officer Mr Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges was delighted with the day, which saw Supreme Win take an exciting renewal of the day’s feature race, the HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup.

“We had a fantastic start to the new season,” he said. “Normally, a switch from a Sunday to a Saturday means less attendance and turnover. This is the first time in 15 years that our opening meeting has been held on a Saturday and still we had more than 63,000 people in attendance. We had the highest first-day turn-out in 20 years, with a 2% increase on last year, and our turnover was extremely good - almost 2% up on last year at HK$929 million.

“A good start to the season is always important and I am delighted with the start we have made to this new season, and with the support of our racing fans.”

Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges was encouraged by the response to the new facilities at Sha Tin Racecourse, part of the ongoing Racecourse Master Plan developments.

“I went to the grandstand where the new facilities have just opened and I got a very encouraging response from our customers, who were very complimentary,” he said.

On the sporting side, the Manfred Man-trained Supreme Win caused an upset in the HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup with a determined stretch run to snatch victory by a last-gasp short-head under Zac Purton.

“That was better than I expected,” revealed Man. “I knew he would run well but I wasn’t sure he could win. The jockey rode him very sensibly.”

High expectations had accompanied hot favourite Arrived Ahead onto the track for the 1200m Class 1, but the pace-setting grey had no response when new boy Richard Fourie took the lead at 300m atop the Derek Cruz-trained Cerise Cherry. However, with Fourie’s mount tiring in the final strides, it was Purton aboard the ground-devouring Supreme Win who took the season’s first feature, nabbing Cerise Cherry on the line in a time of 1m 09.11s. The John Moore-trained Able Speed was three and a quarter lengths third with Arrived Ahead fourth.

“In the middle stages he was off the bit and a touch outpaced,” said Purton, who notched a treble on the day. “I kept him rolling and when I pulled him out in the straight, the fact that it was his first run and the give in the ground just meant that he took a little time to pick up into full stride. I was always confident he was going to win but he’s probably better at 1400m now too.”

After going so close in the feature, Fourie only had to wait a little over an hour to open his account as he steered the Cruz-trained Well Fit to success in the 1000m Harcourt Handicap.

“You’ve got to start with a bang and hopefully that will work in my favour,” said the South African rider.

The Club’s new apprentice, Dicky Lui, had a promising first day, his three rides yielding a second and a third.