{"id":36348,"date":"2022-12-11T20:33:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-11T12:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctr-campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/?p=36348"},"modified":"2022-12-11T22:04:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T14:04:43","slug":"hong-kong-shines-on-world-stage-with-stunning-longines-hkir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/news\/hong-kong-shines-on-world-stage-with-stunning-longines-hkir","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong shines on world stage with stunning LONGINES HKIR"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”36350″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

The Hong Kong Jockey Club\u2019s Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has hailed the 2022 LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) as a celebration of world-class racing and Hong Kong\u2019s incredible \u201cCan Do\u201d spirit.<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

On a day when Hong Kong racing shone on the international stage as local champions \u2013 Wellington (LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint), California Spangle (LONGINES Hong Kong Mile) and Romantic Warrior (LONGINES Hong Kong Cup) \u2013 won three of the four elite Group 1 contests, Japan also continued its successful association with the \u201cTurf World Championships\u201d with Win Marilyn (LONGINES Hong Kong Vase).<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges paid tribute to Hong Kong\u2019s ability to produce world-class performances from a horse population of only 1,250 as more than 45,000 fans flocked to Sha Tin and Happy Valley \u2013 the largest racing crowds in three years \u2013 to participate in a \u201cCelebration of Champions.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

\u201cToday is about the sport, today is about world-class racing and today is about celebrating champions,\u201d Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges said. \u201cToday, Hong Kong has shown that we have world-class quality. It\u2019s amazing that we have only 1,250 horses in training \u2013 that is 0.8 percent of the world\u2019s horse population and it is amazing how many quality horses we have in Hong Kong who are world leaders.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges thanked international and local owners, trainers and jockeys as well as Club staff for the staging of an unforgettable meeting.<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

\u201cI want to thank our team who have done an absolutely outstanding effort because what the team has pulled off has made me as the CEO extremely proud because this is the Hong Kong \u2018Can Do\u2019 spirit and this is excellence of the Hong Kong Jockey Club \u2013 and we never give up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

\u201cI would like to acknowledge and thank the Hong Kong Government for their tremendous support that we could hold such a global event \u2013 because this is a real global event which goes around 80 countries where people around the world who love horse racing focus on Hong Kong.<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

\u201cWe are on the world stage and we are global leaders and we can do things very few others can do.<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

\u201cThe overseas connections who came here, I would like to thank them because they made it a global event and they were all extremely appreciative at how we could conduct this event and stage a global show.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

Addressing Hong Kong\u2019s effort to win three of the four G1s, Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges said: \u201cWellington shows he is one of the best sprinters in the world and the \u2018Golden Generation\u2019 of California Spangle and Romantic Warrior have shown that they can compete on the world stage. Romantic Warrior has produced the best 2000m performance I have seen for a long time against world-class competition and I would like to acknowledge Golden Sixty because, even in his defeat, he has shown that he is a champion.<\/p>\r\n<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”36352″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

\u201cToday is really a day where I would like to acknowledge the tremendous atmosphere we had on track. We had more than 45,000 people coming and cheering our heroes. The theme of our meeting was a \u2018Celebration of Champions\u2019, and our fans were more than happy to come back to the track.<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

\u201cWe had one of the best race meetings and after a period of time living in a hiatus it shows Hong Kong is a unique place and our fans around the world can see how good Hong Kong racing is and it gives me great confidence in the future.\u201d<\/p>\r\n<\/span>

Turnover for the meeting was a record HK$1.729 billion.<\/p>\r\n<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”36350″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Hong Kong Jockey Club\u2019s Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has hailed the 2022 LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) as a celebration of world-class racing and Hong Kong\u2019s incredible \u201cCan Do\u201d spirit. On a day when Hong Kong racing shone on the international stage as local champions \u2013 Wellington (LONGINES… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":36351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36348"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36348"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36394,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36348\/revisions\/36394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}