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Hong Kong horse racing hits its stride

dettori
Hong Kong's flagship horse-racing event has a purse of $6.9 million and is drawing champion jockeys like Frankie Dettori  


By Alex Frew McMillan
CNN Hong Kong

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Hong Kong is prepping for the biggest day in its horse-racing calendar.

The annual International Race Day promises to draw more betting than any horse event, anywhere in the world.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club is hosting the event on Sunday December 16, at the Sha Tin racetrack.

Hong Kong's total horse-racing betting rank it third in the world, behind the United States and Japan, according to the Jockey Club.

It says more money is bet per race in Hong Kong than anywhere in the world. On an average race day, there's a turnover of HK$1 billion ($128 million).

Weekend kicks off with auction

But Sunday is no average race day. For the nags, there's a total purse of HK$54 million ($6.9 million) up for grabs in the four international races.

The Cup is the leading race, worth HK$18 million ($2.3 million) alone.

That has attracted leading jockeys such as the Sardinian-born rider Frankie Dettori, Michael Kinane of Ireland and Olivier Peslier from France.

The weekend kicked off Friday night with a black-tie horse auction, with 35 unridden two-year olds going under the hammer. A gala dinner followed.

Last year's auction was considered disappointing, when the 23 horses raised HK$49.1 million ($6.3 million).

That leads into this weekend's racing. Among this Sunday's nine races will be the Hong Kong Mile, Cup and Vase. The three races are all Group 1 -- the highest caliber of horse race around the world.

Jim and Tonic is the 3-1 favorite for the Hong Kong Cup. Electronic Unicorn is the top prospect for the Mile but is expected to face a stiff challenge from Zenno El Cid. Stay Gold leads the betting in the Vase.

There is also one international Group 2 race, the Hong Kong Sprint.

A racing mad public

Horse racing draws big crowds and even bigger wagers from the betting-mad Hong Kong public. Home town favorites like Fairy King Prawn draw banner headlines on the sports pages.

Gamblers often scour the racing pages on the MTR, Hong Kong's subway, and crowds are common outside betting shops as punters listen to the races.

There are typically two meets a week, with punters flocking to Happy Valley on Hong Kong island on Wednesday night and hitting Sha Tin in the New Territories on Saturday afternoon.

It is one of few legal forms of gambling in Hong Kong, which is a special autonomous region of China. Gamblers have to make the hour-long ferry ride to Macau to visit a casino.

But authorities have been mulling opening up soccer games for betting, starting with an experiment on the Chinese league with an eye to larger-scale wagers on European soccer leagues.

A recent tradition

International race day comes plumb in the middle of Hong Kong's racing season, which takes a break for summer.

The annual event was first held in 1988. The first overseas horses came from Australia and New Zealand the following year, with horses from Europe making their first appearance in 1990.

Japanese and American horses soon followed.

Hong Kong's Jockey Club is one of the main landowners in the city. It has recently started advertising its technology that makes it possible to use cell phones, handheld organizers and the like to place bets away from the track.

Next year promises to be an even bigger and, ahem, better year for racing in Hong Kong.

According to the Chinese calendar, 2002 is the year of the horse.



 
 
 
 



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