On Tuesday, we entered a prosperous new era for the sport of horse racing in Hong Kong and for relations between Hong Kong and Guangdong with the official opening of Conghua Racecourse, the first world-class racecourse and thoroughbred training centre in the Mainland.
It is the culmination of years of work from many of us here at the Hong Kong Jockey Club and we were very proud to unveil Conghua Racecourse at Tuesday’s opening ceremony, attended by more than 500 guests, including Mainland and Hong Kong SAR Government officials, Club members, horsemen, development partners and media from Hong Kong and Mainland.
For this project to have come to fruition, we must thank all of the relevant Mainland and Hong Kong authorities, as the construction of the racecourse, together with the arrangements for its operation, is the product of strong and close co-operation between the Club and Central, Guangdong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong SAR bodies.
Conghua Racecourse features state-of-the-art training and horse care facilities, including the first world-class equine hospital in the Mainland. The Club has deployed highly experienced staff from Hong Kong, ranging from racing, tracks and veterinary management to stables staff. They are working alongside local employees trained under internationally accredited programmes developed in Hong Kong. Together, they are enabling us to provide the highest standard of horse care, equal to that available in Hong Kong.
We are eager to see Conghua Racecourse become a showcase for the sport of horse racing and we expect the racecourse will raise the profile of Conghua, both nationally and internationally.
For us, it is also an opportunity to take our world-class racing to another level entirely. Already, it has started to complement Sha Tin as a training facility, with the first barrier trials held at the course last Thursday and the first in-training horses taking to the uphill gallop – the first of its kind available to Hong Kong’s horse population – in the last couple of weeks.
I have been buoyed by the positive comments from Hong Kong’s horsemen so far and it is abundantly clear that it will play an important role in our racing ecosystem in the foreseeable future. With such a great environment and world-class facilities that include specially designed stallion stalls, it will enable our Owners, who have been investing heavily in recruiting top class horses to Hong Kong, the opportunity to extend the careers and breed future stars.
Now that Conghua has opened, we look ahead to our new racing season, which begins on Sunday, with the feature being the Class 1 HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup over 1200m. I will share with you my thoughts on Sunday’s races in my weekend blog. See you then.
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