ARE YOU READY FOR THE KINGS OF THE TURF?
- The FastTracker
- Nov 30, 2011
- 3 min read
If you haven’t already, mark these two dates down in your diary: December 7 and December 11.
The former is when some of the world’s greatest jockeys compete in the International Jockeys Challenge.
Names like Luke Nolen who has built up such a loyal following through his association with the great Black Caviar and representing Australia.
Aandrach Starke who won L’Arc De Triomphe in such dramatic style representing Germany on the great Danedream.
That New Kid On The Block in New Zealand’s sensation 19-year-old James McDonald.
They and other top Group 1 jockeys- Maxime Guyon and Christophe Lemaire for France, now, the great Frankie Dettori replacing Corey Nakatani for the USA and riding for Italy Ireland’s Johnny Murtagh and Japan’s Yuichi Fukanaga- will all be at Happy Valley to compete against Hong Kong’s triple threat of Douglas Whyte, Brett Prebble and Matthew Chadwick in four designated wins.
Whyte has taken out this Jockeys Challenge three times before.
Will it be another hometown win and with Whyte lightning striking thrice?
Also, there’s our iPhonoracing Competition with the HKJC that night and a chance to win the new iPhone 4S plus HK$4,000 in case you might wish to have a flutter.
What? How?
All will soon be revealed right here.
On Sunday, the fireworks really begin in earnest.
And more fireworks than even Katy Perry sang about.
This is when le crème de la crème of world racing meet at Shatin- horses, jockeys, trainers and owners- for the Hong Kong International Races.
Oh- and lest we forget- the prize money.
It really is an event that should be billed as “Where Champions Meet”.
This is where, as in the recent Melbourne Cup, we’ll see the “re-match” between Dunaden and Red Cadeaux.
In case you never saw the race, there was a short nostril hair between the two when they hit that winning line.
When they meet on December 11, Craig Williams who is riding in the form of his life will ride Dunaden.
Williams was cruelly deprived of adding the Melbourne Cup to the Cups he has won this year when he was suspended and could take the ride in Australia’s biggest race.
Herald Sun Riding Red Cadeaux will be who many believe to be the UK’s best jockey- Ryan Moore.
There will also be the clash we are waiting to see between Douglas Whyte on Hong Kong’s Ambitious Dragon and France’s Byword to be ridden by Maxime Guyon.
Guyon, the new French whiz kid, got off Ambitious Dragon to ride Byword and which had caused a few temperatures to rise.
Who will win this clash?
Neither?
If this happens, that’s racing.
Throughout the day and in four International Cup races, you will see the best of the best.
Some of you might be at the Clockenflap Music and Arts Festival.
But if there is a lull between the music, come down to Shatin.
It would complete one of Hong Kong’s best-ever days for world-class entertainment.
Too bad, the Hong Kong Government and the Hong Kong Tourism Board and those numb nuts at CreateHK have done such a piss-poor job in promoting both events.
Events like these are hardly sees on a regular basis in Hong Kong.
Our bumbling “Yes Minister” type of over-paid bureaucrats just don’t get it.
This is why Singapore is running over Hong Kong with a steamroller when it comes to being Asia’s hub for the International World Of Entertainment.
Hong Kong is “Asia’s World City”?
It’s one of the world’s most expensive cities.
And most pedantic.
A “World City.”
How, why, where and when?
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