The Hong Kong Jockey Club has confirmed the date for the opening race meeting at their new training facility in mainland China.
A new dawn for racing in Asia will begin next year with the first of regular meetings at Conghua Racecourse, which is situated 150km north of Hong Kong, scheduled to take place in October 2026.
“The date is confirmed and it will be on October 31,” the Club’s chief executive officer, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said. “We will publish the launch programme later, but it’s likely to be five or six races.”
The initial plan to begin regular fixtures at Conghua in April next year was pushed back to give the Club sufficient time to complete construction, taking into account any adverse weather conditions over the summer.
The delay also provides the Club with time to plan accordingly in line with China’s five-year National Equine Industry Plan, which is expected to arrive early next year.
“The whole National Equine Industry Development Plan was from 2020-2025, so we expect there will be a new plan in March 2026,” Engelbrecht-Bresges said. “That will outline the next five years and give us more information on policy direction.
“We’ll also determine how many meetings there will be [at Conghua] when we look at the horse population and everything else some time next year.”
The HKJC first held an exhibition race meeting at Conghua in March 2019, consisting of a five-race card that was streamed back to Hong Kong with a 15-minute delay. Some 3,000 fans were trackside at the racecourse, which is based in a military “no-fly zone” and takes around three hours to drive to from Sha Tin.
Engelbrecht-Bresges said October’s race meeting will most likely only see a handful of invited guests witness the occasion.
“The first meeting will most likely be an officials and invited guests meeting,” he said. “Then the second meeting, which will be at the end of November, will be the first real launch for everyone.
“It will be the launch of world-class racing in mainland China.”
Spread across 150 hectares of land, Conghua Racecourse is over twice the size of Sha Tin and was initially designed and built as the specialist equestrian venue for the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010.
In the years since, it has become a vital training aid for Hong Kong’s trainers, with the Club stating 37 per cent of runners last season used the facilities, including superstars like Ka Ying Rising and Voyage Bubble.
The Club’s annual report, which was published at the end of the 2024-25 season, also confirmed that the organisation has acquired land for an equine transfer centre, which will facilitate the import of horses into the Mainland and potentially contribute towards a breeding industry in China.
“The quarantine station will be ready in April 2027,” Engelbrecht-Bresges said of the transfer centre. “It’s very close to Conghua on the edge of the disease free zone.” ∎
