On the day Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges was announced as having won the race to be the new Jockey Club chief executive, chairman John Chan Cho-chak said a key factor in the decision to appoint him was that the stewards wanted a man of 'global vision'.
Nowhere is this more apparent than the success of Hong Kong horses on the world stage and the astonishing growth of the Cathay Pacific International Races.
The International Races were already well established when EB - as the former German professional footballer is popularly called - arrived at Sports Road nine years ago. But what they've since become has been a breathtaking development from what they once were.
'Along with our former chairman, the late Alan Li [Fook-sum], in late 1998 we created a five-year plan that would see the International Races become increasingly more significant. Our dream was to make them the turf world championships,' he said proudly.
'To make a success of this, it was important that the Hong Kong-based horses were good enough to compete against the best in the world, so we created a programme of incentives for Hong Kong owners to upgrade the quality of their horses.
'Today, we see Hong Kong horses recognised as among the best in the world. It started with a Group One win in Japan for Fairy King Prawn in 2000, but in recent years we have developed internationally-recognised champions such as Silent Witness, Cape of Good Hope, Bullish Luck, Vengeance of Rain and, although he has not yet won overseas, Viva Pataca as well.'
