Sha Tin

They've canceled that meeting as it clashes with the state funeral of a, a past leader of the city.

So as a result, as a mark of respect, uh, the Hong Kong Jockey Club have canceled the Sha Tin races for this Sunday.

All right.

Uh, excellent as always from you, Edward.

living because my dad was general secretary for Christian Congress of Asia.

He lived in a colonial house in Sha Tin and on the mountains and all that.

And I thought that is Hong Kong.

I didn't know that was not Hong Kong.

And when I say alarmingly, weird.

I don't think anyone was registering it as being unfair, but it was... surprising to people, especially given the track speed at Sha Tin.

And then we came back to Sha Tin last Sunday, and again, quick.

Class records, really fast times.

So that's what I'm looking for in Hong Kong this week.

Nick, as you well know, we're back into it in Hong Kong.

The new season started at Sha Tin on Sunday, the first meeting down, 87 to go over the next 10 months.

And by gee, what a start to the season.

Kai Ying Rising completely outdid himself.

Timeform chose not to raise Kai Ying's r- mark above 137, which seemed a little strange seeing the world-renowned form analysts from that long-established firm would, you'd imagine, base their, uh, ratings primarily on time.

Kai Ying Rising shattered the clock, reportedly the fastest ever recorded for six furlongs off a standing start, and he was giving away lumps of weight all round.

Dan Barber, Timeform's chief analyst, said Timeform were applying what he termed stone cold caution, pointing out that the champion's opposition ran well below form and that every winner on the Sha Tin card on Sunday produced a personal best.

But I thought there might have been something else.

As good as that was, the most remarkable New Zealand racing story out of the weekend was Sunday.

Sha Tin, the big track, returned to racing in Hong Kong.

It's really easy as a New Zealander to be parochial and say we are the best at this or that.

A lot of it doesn't mean that much to a degree.

It's not that.

It's the official ratings.

But what he did at Sha Tin the other day was...

I've watched racing every day of my life for 40 years.

Nah, he was impressive.

Broke the track record there at Sha Tin.

Can't wait to see him down here in Australia.

Big season in Hong Kong for Australian trainers.

I reckon he went on the punting trip with the fellow degenerate Kingers, without Tim here.

He went with Kingers' old Pipes Kingsley to Sha Tin or whatever.

That was for Kingers' 50th.

But then apart from that, he just spends all of

your passport, Tim.

I reckon all the fucking stamps are Indonesia or Singapore.

That's where Sha Tin is, isn't it?

No, he went to Hong Kong.

Previously, when there were less meetings, it was a week here, a week there, where they could take the pressure off and do maintenance work more and more.

And we're seeing sometimes what looks like a tired race course prone to buyers wear and tear which is just unavoidable with the way the schedule is my hope that chungfa works its way into the rotation becomes a regular part of racing and that we see as a result better turf racing at shatin all season around so for me that's a that's an added bonus of the racing in chungfa and yeah looking forward to you going there and covering it too david

Yeah, it's going to be interesting.

And look, it's part of that Guangzhou Municipality's five-year plan.

We speak God's message backed up by the way that we live.

and the message rings out from City One to Sha Tin, Hong Kong, and beyond.

But in the end, let me say that it's okay.

It's okay if we're an imperfect model or if our words are often deficient because, of course, Christians do not just point to ourselves.