Friday Night Live

Greetings from the 26th floor of the Renaissance Harbour View, where my view of Victoria Harbour is limited to a construction site with many, many cranes. It's technically a garden view, but, if I stand just right, I can see the ferris wheel. Anyways, I'm not complaning…

Having logged about five hours of sleep over the course of the first two nights, I decided to play this morning by ear. I popped awake at 5 and said to myself that if for some reason I was awake by the time the final coach was set to venture out to Sha Tin at 730, I'd hop on. Well, I woke up nearly an hour after that time, which was OK. Instead of watching horses run around in circles, I instead took a phone call and listened to about two minutes of my stepdaughters' winter concert at school Thursday night. Fair trade, I thought.

The nature of the beast that is HKIR week is that between spending some time at the track in the morning and coming back to piece together some intelligible thoughts, most of the day is consumed. One knows this going in. Time to recreate just isn't real easy to come by. And so it was Friday, until 630p, the appointed start time for the gala dinner a stone's throw from here at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. Oops, Centre, apologies. What is kind of neat and fun about attending these events in person is that you actually get to put a real person together with their presence on social media. I met and exchanged some conversation with thoroughbred.com.au's Rob Burnet, who has done some work for us here and there covering Australian sales and news, as well as my colleague Racenews's Mark Popham.and have also had the chance to meet people like Singapore Turf Club commentator Craig Evans–who does a fantastic job–and his son William, Racing.com's Shane Anderson (thanks for the kind words, Shane), Moyglare Stud's Fiona Craig and shook the hand of legendary trainer Dermot Weld. Barry Weisbord even shipped in from Seoul. I also met, for the first time in real life, HKJC's Pat Cummings, who is basically the mayor this week. Pat's done an outstanding job helping to spread the word about racing in this jurisdiction not only during this week, but ever since he hooked up with the Club in late spring. Well done, Pat.

Following the cocktail hour at around 730, the doors opened to the great hall, as Pat told me, the only place in Hong Kong other than the airport that could accommodate the 800 or so guests. HKJC Chairman Dr. Simon Ip issued some warm welcoming comments, setting up the weekend, before introducing Walter von Kaenel, president of HKIR presenting sponsor and fan of racing world racing Longines.

As is always the case at the gala, there was excellent and eclectic entertainment. Those in attendance were treated to a tremendous display by renowned Chinese violinist Yao Jue, a local troupe called Ban's Gig Drums delivered a percussion performance with neon sticks and the Sichuan Suining Acrobatic Troupe did things that I really cannot sufficiently describe in words. If you scan Twitter, you'll find stills and probably some video. Let's just say that sometimes I have trouble navigating stairs up and down on my two feet. I'll leave that right there.

As reported elsewhere in the paper, a very dapper Frankie Dettori accepted the award for 2015 Longines 'World's Best Jockey' and did not perform a flying dismount, though he was encouraged to do so from the stage.

Now, following in the considerable hoofprints of my friend Lucas Marquardt and as I did in Singapore, I must digress into a much-too-lengthy description of what was on the menu. You can fast forward here if you like. Especially if you keep a strict vegetarian diet.

The first plate was already on the table when we sat down. So was a menu. I didn't look at this menu. I probably SHOULD have looked at this menu, because, in broad terms, if I don't know what I'm about to eat, I generally won't eat it. The food on the dish was triangular in shape, made for a nice presentation, really. It was also clear to me that it was a paté of sorts. I'm Jewish, grew up on chopped liver, I'm down with that. Just didn't know exactly what was in there. Well, come to find out it was venison terrine with a strange fungus I'd never heard of with a linseed crisp and something sweet and dark and fruity to contrast with the terrine. OK, first time for everything. And it really wasn't unpalatable.

Next course–blue lobster meat, one in the obvious shape of a claw and the other a more unrecognizable ball. One scared me, the other didn't, but it was definitely all lobster. It was served in an uni sauce. It was tasty and I've heard of uni before and just don't feel like googling it right this second. It did complement the lobster very nicely.

Next, a soup. A consomme. A pheasant consomme with mierpoix (fancy way of saying chopped veggies, though I just found that out) and what I would call small dumplings. After consuming this, I was in a fowl mood. Hold your applause. Please.

Chapter 4. Entree. A few weeks ago, the very capable Meon Yu, the HKJC media liaison, emailed us the selections and they were interesting, to put it mildly. The fish option was salmon with vintage caviar (whatever that is), I went for the beef option. Wagyu beef. Beef cheek to be specific. Everyone together….ewwwww. Actually, it was very good, fork-tender served on potato mash with organic vegetables and a delicious mango brunoise, apparently a culinary knife cut. Where's Bobby Flay when I need him?

The grand finale was–I had to take a picture of the menu for this: “pistachio and jivara lactee chocolate bar, granny smith sorbet, candied lemon puree, Nori popcorn.” Pretty doggone amazing.

As has been the case on each of my three visits to this amazing city, the Hong Kong Jockey Club puts on a tremendous show, really first-class. Tonight did not disappoint, and the main event now lies about 36 hours away.

G'night all.