Jockey Club technicians race against clock to eradicate CIT bugs

Hong Kong Jockey Club technicians were working round the clock yesterday to iron out a communications fault that played havoc with the popular Customer Input Terminal (CIT) system on Saturday.

Frustrated punters were forced into long delays before being able to place bets on the nine-event Happy Valley programme - or missed out completely. At one stage there was a complete break in the system for four minutes.

From shortly after the final event at the city track until last night, technicians were still working to find the gremlins and ensure that the CIT network would be up and running efficiently before tomorrow's massive 10-event card.

The split meeting at Happy Valley starts with the world-famous Melbourne Cup plus two supporting races from Australia and there is then a seven-hour break until race four on the programme starts at the city track.

The fourth event - in reality the first local race - begins at 7.30 pm and will be followed by another six events.

Senior Jockey Club betting official Darryll Plowright said yesterday: 'The information technology people are hard at it and we are confident that it will be fixed in good time for Tuesday's meeting.

'It is a fault in the communications system but I cannot be any more specific than that. They have been working since 6 pm on Saturday night and I have had reports since then.