HKJC'S HUGE INVESTMENT IN RACING'S FUTURE

By Darren Winningham | Thursday, December 7, 2023

The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) administers the picturesque Happy Valley track set in the centre of Hong Kong Island. Then there is the amazing Sha Tin racetrack – the centre of Hong Kong racing. This track features all the training facilities for horse racing in Hong Kong. The additional benefit is the stables on the track for international visitors that are set up for quarantine purposes for the international meetings held annually in Hong Kong. The benefits to overseas trainers and horses are that they can access the turf track, the all-weather track, and the other superior training facilities to ensure an equal playing field in the preparation and training of their horses for these feature races.

The HKJC has another facility located in China at Conghua. In 2010 the HKJC designed and built the equestrian venue for the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games. It is a huge property that is presently spanning 150 hectares and has enough space to home over 600 racehorses.

Located approximately 200 kilometres from Hong Kong, the journey from Sha Tin Racecourse to Conghua Racecourse is about three hours by car and four hours by specially designed cross-boundary horse floats. Nothing is left to chance by the HKJC to ensure the safety and well-being of the horses and the staff who care for them. Specialised transport vehicles and quality amenities are provided at Conghua.

Hong Kong Jockey Club CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges announced a huge investment and complete upgrade of the facilities at Conghua to the media during the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) week. He spoke passionately about the planning that had gone into this major project being undertaken by the HKJC. The upgrade included the building of 450 horse stables, a hotel for staff on track, the returfing and remedial works to the track lifting the facility to a world class venue.

Engelbrecht-Bresges outlined some of the other major upgrades such as the building of a new grandstand with an investment of $550 million. A further $260 million on horse stables and the parade ring. The works will commence in February 2024.

The project is one that is unparalleled in world horse racing with the total cost of the projects and the works being undertaken totalling $2.5 billion. At first, I thought he meant Hong Kong dollars – until he clarified that the project has been budgeted in US dollars. This equates to $3.731 Australian Dollars – probably the entire costs for running and staging the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.

This is a serious investment by the HKJC that has the approval of the Chinese government.

It is anticipated that in the 2026/27 Hong Kong racing season that there will be several race meetings scheduled at Conghua that will complement the 88 race days that already take place in Hong Kong. It is still uncertain whether these meetings will be held on a Saturday or Sunday, however, it is anticipated that they will coincide with other international meetings around the world.

Engelbrecht-Bresges was questioned about the approval for betting on the Conghua race meetings when they finally did race. He said, “My answer is the same as before, I am not going to speculate on this. You cannot do something when you don’t have permission, simple as that.”

It would appear with the massive investment in the facilities that these will be used for pre-training and spelling of racehorses but, possibly, we could see a betting forum approved as well as the gigantic transformation of Conghua takes place.

Stay tuned to this story as it unfolds – it could be the third dimension of Hong Kong racing in another world class facility.

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