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Ridley keeps an eye on the sky

Robin Parke

Jockey Club tracks boss John Ridley has a squad on standby to work through the night if tropical storm Wendy savages Sha Tin later today.

An immediate threat to tomorrow's first meeting of the new season seemed unlikely with the storm early last night moving at 22 km/h about 370 kilometres from the south China coastline.

Ridley said: 'Things can change but it is expected to hit around lunchtime. I never tend to worry about nature because there is absolutely nothing one can do about it.

'What I have done is ensure that we will move immediately to repair any damage. I have a team already lined up and we will work as long as it is necessary after the storm has passed. I would like to think that by Sunday morning it will be back to normal and we can enjoy the first meeting of the new season.' Ridley, however, is mindful that two black rainfall warnings came in the wake of tropical storm Sam two weeks ago.

'But the track can take it. We had 266 millimetres of rain, or 13 inches under the old scale, last week and had trials quite successfully. I hope that the track is not rain-affected, not for the first day,' he said.

A decision on running six planned trials on the Happy Valley grass this morning was due to be taken by Ridley at 5.30 am.

Jockeys, trainers and media were left impatiently waiting for entries for Wednesday's first Happy Valley meeting of the new season when two races were re-opened in the morning because of lack of entries.

Only one new entry came in during the extended time up until 3.30 pm but a decision was then taken to combine both entries and weights for the meeting.

It was a decision taken in the prevailing circumstances but it may become policy to release the entries and weights on the same sheet in future.

Information secretary Wilson Cheng explained: 'Theoretically, four races were involved when entries were re-opened so it was not a question of being able to have them done before 3.30 pm.

'We went to the handicapping department and it was relatively easy for them to finish their task. It seemed wasteful to simply put out entries, which we probably could have done by around 4 pm, and then follow with weights half an hour later. Given that both were done together, we had them out as quickly as possible.' The information department will now sound out the media, trainers and jockeys about having both entries and weights combined in the future.

'If some of the media want entries without weights, we may be able to provide that without actually publishing them in the normal form,' added Cheng.

Allan charting course - Page 21

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