Hong Kong Jockey Club Chief Executive Officer Mr Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has hailed 2025 FWD Champions Day as one of the best editions of the flagship meeting in a “very long period of time” after Ka Ying Rising, Red Lion and Japan’s Tastiera took Group 1 honours at Sha Tin on Sunday (27 April).

With an overall attendance of 46,186, today’s gathering included a FWD Champions Day record of 8,244 guests from the Mainland, as well as 1,083 international attendees.

Lauding the performances of the world’s highest-rated sprinter Ka Ying Rising in the HK$22 million G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m), Red Lion in the HK$24 million G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) and Tastiera in the HK$28 million G1 FWD QEII Cup (2000m), Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges said the Club’s strategy of staging world-class racing and entertainment events was working.

“We want to provide more world-class racing and entertainment and from the feedback we have so far, we have definitely achieved this. We will always improve and never stand still because permanent improvement is one of the values we have,” he said.

“It was one of the biggest FWD Champions Day for a very long period of time and which we see as a success.

“I would like to thank our team for a terrific effort for putting on marvellous events throughout the week – from the barrier draw, the welcome party and today’s race meeting, which had a tremendous atmosphere with tremendous performances on the track.

“Looking at the performances of horses today, there’s one performance which was completely dominant and we are very glad to see the world’s best sprinter in Ka Ying Rising. He showed how good he is and how he can dominate the field. That created a wonderful atmosphere.

“Then in the FWD Champions Mile, we had a tremendous fight to the line between Red Lion and Voyage Bubble and then another fight in the inquiry room. These two horses gave their very best and showed that Hong Kong milers are extremely strong.

“In the last race, the Japanese Derby winner Tastiera showed his true class in winning the race, while Prognosis seemingly can never win a Group 1 but can always run second. We were very glad to see a new visitor from Bahrain with Calif coming third.”

Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges paid tribute to champion Japanese mare Liberty Island who could not be saved after suffering a leg injury in the FWD QEII Cup.

“Unfortunately, Liberty Island could not be saved and that is something which spoilt a fabulous meeting. I want to really honour Liberty Island, who was a great racing filly and it is really sad.”

Turnover was HK$1.52 billion, which was slightly down on 2024.

“The overseas market is up by nearly 10 percent which shows again that World Pool and commingling is definitely something I think we can build on and I think this shows that Hong Kong racing, despite geo-political and economic challenges, is going from strength to strength.”

Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges thanked FWD Hong Kong for its ongoing support and praised the spectacular performances of K-Pop idol MINNIE of (G) I-DLE and pop diva Joey Yung in the Parade Ring before the meeting.

Mr Andrew Harding, Hong Kong Jockey Club Executive Director, Racing, said: “This has been one of the best editions of FWD Champions Day in quite some time. I really want to single out the efforts in terms of recruitment with the breadth and quality of the horses recruited this year, which was simply outstanding and it was marvellous to see new jurisdictions participating in this fabulous day.

“I would like to acknowledge and thank our sponsor, FWD, for what has been a fantastic day of racing.”