HK FEB 12 - RECORD CROWD SEES IN THE YEAR OF THE SNAKE AT THE CHINESE NEW YEAR RACE MEETING

By Hong Kong Jockey Club | Tuesday, February 12, 2013

A massive crowd of 118,864 enjoyed an exciting afternoon of sport today as golden sunshine and good fortune shone down on Hong Kong race-goers for the Chinese New Year race meeting, with turnover reaching a record HK$1.526 billion.

The bumper attendance is the highest in the past 20 years and outstrips the previous record for the Chinese New Year race-day at Hong Kong’s racecourses, which stood at 116,188 for the 2000 fixture.

A total of 111,909 passed through the turnstiles today at Sha Tin Racecourse alone, smashing the track’s all-time record figure of 102,641 recorded in 2000, while a further 6,955 Crossbet customers packed Happy Valley Racecourse.

“This has been the best Chinese New Year meeting in my time here, if not ever,” said the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, after turnover eclipsed the previous record for the day, set in 1997.

“I think what was encouraging was the enthusiasm, we had a great atmosphere. The figures show that we had a record turnover, but more importantly we had a record attendance and that makes us pretty optimistic for the Year of the Snake.

I would like to thank the racing fans and also our staff, who did a tremendous job to cope with such significant traffic.”

On the sporting front, Penglai Xianzi took the day’s feature event, the Class 1 Chinese New Year Cup (Handicap) over 1400m, for trainer Tony Cruz and jockey Keith Yeung, both of whom were winning the race for the first time.

Yeung settled his mount in the slipstream of pace-setting stable mate Good Words before unleashing a telling late burst of speed to take the spoils by a length from Talley Close, with Keen Marie a further nose third, in a time of 1m 21.75s.

“The instructions were to go forward and Good Words went on so I decided to get across and take the box seat – he travelled well and when the gap came I just went for it,” said the jockey, who was winning at the second consecutive Chinese New Year meeting following Great Pegasus 12 months ago.

Chinese New Year is a time for celebrating happiness and good fortune, so Nice Folks in Race 6 and Heco Rider in Race 7 were apt winners on the day; their respective Chinese names carry the meanings “Fortune every day” and “Very joyful”. Heco Rider was partnered by Tye Angland, born in the Year of the Snake, and fellow snake baby Alvin Ng was on the mark atop Hinyuen Paladin in Race 3.

There was a treble on the day for 12-time champion jockey Douglas Whyte, who took the finale on Sea Dragon by the narrowest of noses, while fellow rider Olivier Doleuze scored a double, as did trainers Richard Gibson and John Size.

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