It was a form of positive emotional attachment to horse racing that some of us had been waiting for, and it must have been written in the stars for this to happen at the last race meeting of the somewhat strained 2021-22 Hong Kong racing season at Shatin on Saturday.
t was something needed for a city going through immense inner turmoil, and a pastime where it’s all too easy to get swept up in all the numbers trotted out- everything from wagering figures, falling into greed with the huge odds paid when an outsider wins to the usual gambling lament of Could Have, Should Have, Should Have.
On Saturday, after a crippling season of lockdowns and adhering to all manner of government mandates regarding very strict social distancing measures to keep racing continuing, the dam finally broke and raw emotions poured out. It was like a Jerry Maguire moment.
It was karmic that at his last race meeting in a long career where many of those years were spent in Hong Kong, Trainer Paul O’Sullivan should bow out on a winning note.
For this winner- Alpha Turquoise- to have been ridden by Zac Purton, the Jockey who was given much of his early support in the city and first Group 1 winner by O’Sullivan, made things far more meaningful.
The moment he returned to the winner’s circle, Zac immediately dismounted and hugged his old friend.
Sometimes those social distancing measures need to be broken. This was one of those times.
Together, they had formed a partnership that included wins in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan with the very good galloper Aerovelocity.
Unlike João Moreira, Zac hardly ever shows his feelings. This time he did. After his own personal battles this year to get fit enough for competitive racing while being trapped in that “racing bubble” with his young family, when he and Paul O’Sullivan hugged, there must have been more than a moment when many memories passed through his mind.
What Zac Purton achieved this racing season, at least to me, transcends horse racing.
For someone who never finished school, he’s successfully picking off everything on his To Do bucket list.
He’s still hungry, but I personally don’t think his future career challenges are going to be on a race track.
Watching Zac and Paul O’Sullivan might have also made some of us think about our own life journeys, the role Hong Kong has played in them and new goals.
Equally moving to see was Frankie Lor Fa-chuen being interviewed after beating his old boss John Size to win his first Hong Kong Trainer’s Championship.
After four decades in Hong Kong racing starting out as one of more unfashionable local riders, it really has been a wonderful achievement for Frankie Lor to achieve everything he has in the five short years he’s been a trainer.
His success is good for racing and extremely good for Hong Kong and the city’s one-time Can Do spirit. It’s inspiring stuff.
The sentiments echoed by Jay Z and Alicia Keys on “Empire State Of Mind” was playing in my head watching Lor being interviewed by the racing media.
As a Hong Kong Belonger, I was pumped with pride.
Though most definitely not a dyed in the wool racing fan, I was proud of the achievements of all these champions in the racing fraternity including Hong Kong born Matthew Chadwick.
The one-time Champion boom apprentice, who’s had to battle his own problems away from the race track, won the coveted Tony Cruz Award given to the season’s most successful local jockey.
This came after a season where one saw how that prodigious talent has matured into a very very good rider.
Being presented with this award by Tony Cruz, the legendary trainer to whom he was indentured as an apprentice in Hong Kong, completed that full circle.
For the Hong Kong Jockey Club, other than having posted a record HK$140.4 billion in turnover last season, it played host to something that goes beyond money and which money cannot buy.
Anything, even a pastime like horse racing, where it’s often about winning more and more money, finding an emotional attachment with the game that has nothing to do with materialistic gains says something and everything that cannot be put into words.
It’s something personal and special.
It’s a very unique yet obtuse way of marketing any product and which comes out of honesty and the often invisible power of nostalgia.
Just ask Don Draper.