Hong Kong Racing
First HKJC Conghua meeting spearheads Year of the Horse celebrations
The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) have unveiled a list of key dates for their lavish Year of the Horse Campaign which in October features HKJC's first official mainland China race meeting at Conghua Racecourse.
The HKJC have left no stone unturned for the Year of the Horse celebrations. Parades, fireworks, drone shows plus horse art installations and exhibits will greet Hong Kong racing fans in Q1 2026.It's on the last day of October however where arguably the most pivotal event occurs, the first official HKJC race meeting hosted at Conghua racecourse.
"This is a truly historic event with the start of world-class racing at our incredible Chinese Mainland facility," HKJC CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
"This milestone represents a significant advance in the development of racing and equestrian excellence for the Greater Bay Area, forging a dynamic, ongoing connection between Hong Kong and the Mainland, through the power of the horse."
"The triangle of Hong Kong, the two racecourses [Sha Tin & Happy Valley], plus Conghua, will be, with the greater bay area, the triangle of world-class racing in China," Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
"In my view, Conghua has been a game changer for our development. When we opened up Conghua in 2018, if you change something which is really fundamental, you have a lot of people who think you're stupid - it will not work."
"You have to have the vision and you have to be clear why you believe this is a game changer."
With mainland China's ban on wagering, the HKJC must focus its attention on delivering racegoers a different raceday experience.
"We have invested even more in technology because of the benchmark experience you have to provide in China," Engelbrecht-Bresges said.
"The digital experience we have in Hong Kong is good. In China, it's three to five years ahead of Hong Kong.
"The customer expectation is not a Hong Kong expectation, it's a mainland expectation.
"Navigation, payment, solutions regarding interaction and information - it's different.
"You have to create a new experience of information which is not gaming related but which is still interesting. But even the digital experience when you go to the racetrack - you book your seat. You have to have that booking in your app, I go into the track and it shows you where your seat is."
It has reshaped how horses in Hong Kong are trained, courtesy of both the property itself and what its development allowed the HKJC to do in renovating existing stables at Sha Tin.
"Our stables were 50 years old," Engelbrecht-Bresgtes said.
"They were built on reclaimed land.
"The stables were built for requirements of horses' quality of life 40, 50 years ago. So we had to rebuild and refit out the horse stables.
"You cannot do this if you cannot decamp. So that was the other strategic advantage of having Conghua.
"But besides the decamp I'm convinced that having this training facilities will help to bring even Hong Kong horses to the next level.
"Ka Ying Rising, I would call him a permanent resident in Conghua. He thrives through being in a different environment. You see horses who need a break, horses who need a different environment, they come back refreshed."
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