Record stakes for Hong Kong new season

Hong Kong will stage its 2018/19 season opener at Sha Tin Racecourse on Sunday, 2 September, the first of 88 fixtures worth a record total of HK$1.22 billion.

The season will consist of 47 day meetings and 41 night fixtures at Hong Kong’s two iconic tracks, Happy Valley and Sha Tin. The season finale is scheduled for Sunday, 14 July, 2019.

Dates to note include the Longines Hong Kong International Races, with its four famous Group 1 contests worth a combined HK$93 million in stakes, on Sunday, 9 December, and Champions Day on Sunday, 28 April. The latter will again feature the Grade 1 QEII Cup over 2000m, the Grade 1 Champions Mile over 1600m and the Grade 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize over 1200m, with the three championship races worth a total of HK$58 million in prize money.

The Longines International Jockeys Championship will light up Happy Valley on Wednesday, 5 December. Hong Kong’s most coveted domestic prize, the BMW Hong Kong Derby over 2000m, will be run at Sha Tin on Sunday, 17 March.

A change to the calendar will move the first leg of the Hong Kong Triple Crown, the Grade 1 Stewards’ Cup over 1600m, and the first leg of the Hong Kong Speed Series, the Grade 1 Centenary Sprint Cup over 1200m, to 20 January, with the Four-YearOld Classic Series opener, the Hong Kong Classic Mile, shifting to a spot one week later on 27 January.

That gives a three-week lead-up to the second leg, the Hong Kong Classic Cup over 1800m, which will be part of an exciting topclass programme on Sunday, 17 February along with the Grade 1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup over 2000m and the Grade 1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup over 1400m, both of which will be run one week earlier than last term.

This season’s Chinese New Year Meeting will be on Thursday, 7 February. Hong Kong will stage 12 Group 1 races, with all of the jurisdiction’s lucrative Pattern races open to international competition. -