Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said Sunday’s Longines Hong Kong International Races had been “one of the greatest days of Hong Kong racing”, despite a scary incident that saw a man run onto the Sha Tin track during the biggest race of the day.
As the field for the HK$40 million Hong Kong Cup turned for home, a man ran onto the racetrack holding a sign.
While the incident could have led to the cancellation of the city’s richest race, some quick thinking from Jockey Club starter Chris McMullen to tackle the invader and hold him still while the field thundered past ensured a crisis was averted.
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“Today was, in our view, a very, very special day where we saw tremendous sport. We are really proud that we had so many international guests coming,” Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
“We had to overcome a significant challenge in light of the tragedy of the Tai Po fire and you can see the emotions in the Hong Kong community are still very deep.
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“We had an incident on the track. The person is obviously very aggrieved and he wanted to launch a petition and ask for further inquiries into the deaths caused by the fires.