By DEANJOHN

The fans turned out in big numbers to celebrate the last Hong Kong meeting of the 2008/2009 season. The winners of the Most Popular Jockey and Horse of the Year were announced and there were prizes too for lucky patrons. Aussie Perth sensation Willie Pike is going to be a Hong Kong Supa Star next season. It is now time for Spelling, with Hong Kong racing taking its summer break until early September. All this and more in my penultimate feature article of the season!

Bumper end of season meeting at Sha Tin

The 2008/09 Hong Kong racing season ended on a high note at Sha Tin last Wednesday (1 July) as more than 63,000 racing fans flocked to the racecourses for the season finale, while a number of top horses and horsemen were honored in the Champion Awards Presentation for their outstanding achievements in the season.

Total betting turnover for the day was a staggering HK$1.2 Billion. That is HK$1,200 Million or written in full: $1,200,000,000. Now wouldn't those Aussie racing administrators like a slice of that booty! Total betting turnover for the 78 race meetings this season amounted to HK$66.82 billion. Total attendance remained stable at 1,927,000 this season. 

The Hong Kong Jockey Club gave every racegoer at the end of season meeting this free gift upon admission to Sha Tin Racecourse. It's the Figurine Set of all the horses nominated for the 2008/2009 Horse of the Year, the results of which were announced during the day. 

Imagine if our race clubs had give-aways and special promotions like this! Imagine how excited you would be to get to the track! I personally cannot wait! 

Win, lose or draw: Sha Tin racegoers are excited about their free gift from the Jockey Club!

Aussie Administrators: Take Note: if you want them queuing up to get into the track!

The champions award

Viva Pataca, a seven-time Group One winner, was crowned Horse of the Year as well as the Champion Middle-Distance and Champion Stayer at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Champion Awards presentation ceremony during the final race meeting of the 2008/09 season at Sha Tin Racecourse.

During the 2008/09 season, Viva Pataca won four Group races and two of those were at the highest level locally, including a second victory in the Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (HK G1-2000m) and a terrific third success in the Citi Champions & Chater Cup (HK G1-2400m). The seven-year-old also ran a respectable second in the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup (G1-2000m).

Good Ba Ba was again named Champion Miler. The seven-year-old won the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile (G1-1600m) for a second year in track record time, followed by a second victory in a row in the Citi Stewards' Cup (HK G1-1600m). At the end of May he was rated the second-highest rated horse in the world with an international rating of 124, the highest ever granted to a HK horse.

Sacred Kingdom earned the title of Champion Sprinter for the second year in concession. The world's top-ranked turf sprinter overcame an injury and returned to the winner's circle appeared after a nose verdict in The Sprint Cup (HK G2-1200m). The five-year-old regained world champion ascendancy with an international rating of 124 after edging out the unbeaten Singapore star Rocket Man in the KrisFlyer International Sprint (SIN G1-1200m) in track record time at Kranji.

Royal Flush was chosen as Champion Griffin. The three-year-old bay colt was a very easy winner on his fourth and final griffin outing before landing the Juvenile Sprint Trophy from the many of the best of his peers.

The Most Improved Horse award went to More Bountiful, who won sixth times from Class 4 to Gr.2 in his maiden season to earn an increase of 72 points in rating. He made the biggest single leap in the local ratings this decade - 21lbs - after a decisive success in the Chairman's Trophy (HK G2-1600m). He ran second in the Mercedes-Benz HK Classic Mile (HK G1-1600m).

Caspar Fownes captured his second Champion Trainer title with 68winners.

Douglas Whyte collected the jockeys' premiership for the ninth consecutive year with 96 wins, while Matthew Chadwick became Champion Apprentice Jockey in his first Hong Kong debut season with a record-breaking 43 wins.

Voting results for the most poplar jockey and most popular horse of the year

South African rider Douglas Whyte was crowned Champion Jockey for the ninth time, while he also won racing fans' vote as Most Popular Jockey of the Year, beating Aussie Brett Prebble in a photo finish by a mere 294 votes! Sacred Kingdom was elected the Most Popular Horse of the Year. 

A record number of 380,418 votes were recorded. The three horses and jockeys with the highest number of votes were as follows:

Most Popular Horse (190,395 votes)		Most Popular Jockey (190,023votes)
1. Sacred Kingdom	61,529	1. Douglas Whyte	65,735
2. Viva Pataca	58,895	2. Brett Prebble	65,441
3. Good Ba Ba	34,771	3. Matthew Chadwick	30,366

Check out all the results and so much more in the special website created by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to promote the Awards.

Aussie Perth sensation Willie Pike impresses in Hong Kong

What a brilliant ride by Willie on Go Lucky Go, $20, for a very close second, beaten a neck by Darren Beadman in Race 9 on Wednesday. Check it out here, select the date 01/07/2009 and click on the moving horse next to Race 9. He is in the orange, and well back on the rails on the turn.

Willie was never going to set the Hong Kong world ablaze arriving as he did in the final weeks of the season to fill a shortage of jockeys due to injury and suspensions. The Hong Kong racing scene doesn't work that way. Most of the horses he was riding were those that nobody else wanted to ride. However, I watched him closely and he rode nearly every one of them to perform as best they could. But in reality, most of his mounts were pretty useless ability wise.

In all he had 31 rides for 4 seconds (three of these being narrowly beaten by Aussie champ Darren Beadman), 1 third, 2 fourths and 2 fifths.

I cannot wait for the next season; Pike is going to be a Hong Kong Supa Star! In the meantime, watch out for him as he returns to Perth to ride out the rest of the Australian season. I have included a few snaps, above and below, of Willie during this trip in Hong Kong, at trackwork at Sha Tin. Note that there is none of this working horses in the dark in Hong Kong!

Last week If you missed last week's article: I look at racing in Melbourne and ask is it becoming so dumbed down that it is now boring? The racetracks are being watered away. Where are all the good horses going? And those feral jumps! A staking plan to use with my tips. And it's Party Time: DEANJOHN Plans A Big Sendoff for the Final Meetings of the Season. All this and more, click here to read.

Next week in my final article of the season, we have the TRUTH about the Jumps!

Good Luck!

DEANJOHN

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