The wait is over, the influx has slowly begun and Hong Kong’s biggest week is almost upon us.
Walking around Happy Valley on Wednesday night, the first international visitors were already on course, getting a taste ahead of next week’s extravaganza.
Let’s hope they don’t go to Sha Tin on Sunday, though – an 11-race card, with seven races on the dirt, is hardly the right prelude for international week.
While most of the attention is on the track – primarily the International Jockeys’ Championship and the four international races – the racing side is merely one piece of the puzzle for those lucky enough to be in town for “the greatest show on turf”.
Many are linked to the races – the allocation of jockeys for the IJC, the barrier draws, morning trackwork – but there are also functions, dinners, people to see. And somewhere in the mix, work has to be done. With not a second to be wasted, it’s a week of working hard, playing hard and sleeping … well, who needs sleep?
One of the highlights of trackwork each morning is seeing who has batted through the night and made it to the bus, bleary-eyed and caffeine-dependent.
Coming at the end of the northern hemisphere season, as well as the spring carnival down under, it is used by many from abroad as a chance to get away. It is the ultimate holiday for the racing enthusiast – with great horses, a great city, great people and a great party.
For many, the term “working holiday” features more holiday and less work, as highlighted in 2011 when the number of Australian journalists stretched beyond 40 – despite no Australian-trained runner in any of the four races (although Cox Plate runner-up Jimmy Choux did finish midfield in the Mile).
As a veteran of only one international week, we’re still a bit green when it comes to the Longines HKIR playbook, but certain memories stand out above the haze from last year.
The traditional Sunday night informal after-party at Al’s Diner in Lan Kwai Fong has its share of detractors, but it continues to attract a broad cross-section of jockeys, trainers, owners, journalists and fans in one big street party to toast the week that was.
Only finding its rhythm after midnight and still going as workers head off for another manic Monday, it’s dingy and nostalgic but it has the ingredients for a good celebration – music for the masses, a vibrant atmosphere and cheap drinks.
It produced a personal highlight last year, too – the sight of so many Australian racing personalities drunkenly singing Khe Sanh while the rest of a bemused world looked on. It was a powerful moment for an Australian settling into life away from home.
The Sunday night is merely a culmination, though. Throughout the week Lan Kwai Fong, Soho and Wan Chai are filled with racing fans, and it’s nigh on impossible to escape to any nightspot without finding someone discussing whether Ryan Moore or Christophe Soumillon or Damien Oliver or Joao Moreira is the world’s best jockey, or why English racing is the best in the world.
Only during HKIR week can you walk into almost any bar and see a top overseas trainer mesmerised by the beautiful company, while on the dance floor one of the world’s finest jockeys loses that finely tuned balance and comes within inches of being paralysed. It’s heaven for a racing personality spotter, but what happens in Hong Kong stays in Hong Kong.
If you are a first-time visitor, get out to trackwork in the mornings or to the bars at night and take the opportunity to chat to as many people as possible – you never know who you might meet.
It’s a melting pot, the world’s ultimate racing water cooler.
