Chinese racing market continues to open up

China: Further details have been released about the opening up of the Chinese horse market with increased numbers being imported into China and new tracks being opened up.

The HORFA 2010 Chinese Industry Horse Fair in Shanghai, China, in September is set to showcase this expansion with the organisers reporting that China as an emerging market is the last untapped market of the horse world.

Once popular in China, racing was outlawed afterthe Communist Revolution and previous attempts to start again have run into difficulties.

The government shut down a number of racecourses in 2000 in an anti-gambling campaign, while in 2005 nearly 600 horses belonging to a failed Beijing racecourse were put down, to the fury of animal rights campaigners.

The latter experiment featured a multi-million-dollar racecourse (without betting) and breeding centre with professional trainers, among them Britain's Nigel Smith.

However, licences to stage races again were issued in 2008 to a development in Wuhan, the Orient Lucky City project, set in a huge lakeside complex

In a report last week HORFA organisers said that the Chinese horse industry had experienced a long period of recess, until in 2008 Beijing purchased nearly 1,000 sports horses for the Olympic Games, a deal that astonished the world.

Since then, the Chinese local authorities, horse associations, investors and horse breeding bases in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Gansu have all been actively involved in horse-related projects.

China has a massive black-market gambling economy but it is understood that lottery-style competitions rather than traditional betting is to be permitted.

It is also reported that, following the Dubai-backed Tianjin Horse Complex, another racecourse project is in the pipeline featuring investment by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

China is said to have imported 754 heads of horses in the first five months of 2010.

The report said that the China Horse Industry Conference will aggregate experts and professionals from racecourses; ranches; horse companies; investment agencies and gambling institutions home and abroad.

The HORFA conference will have speeches and workshops on the horse market, racehorse market; horse breeding and imports; and racecourse investment, construction and management in China, to help the audiences understand the Chinese horse market and enable them to prepare for entering the market.

Chinese racetrack projects
Hubei province - Orient Lucky City
Sichuan province - Jinma International Sport City
Guangdong province - Conghua Equestrian Court (under construction)
Inner Mongol autonomous region - Xinlingol Horse City (under construction)
Tianjin city - Tianjin Meydan Horse City (under construction)