WinStar poised to capitalise on emerging market of China

The connection between the rolling bluegrass paddocks of Kentucky and the vast, untamed steppes of Inner Mongolia is not always obvious, these two very different places in the same racing world, but here, leaning on the parade ring rail at Yiqi racecourse, is a man with one foot squarely in each camp.

Elliott Walden grins, takes off his branded baseball cap, looks around at the hectic busyness of the first race meeting staged at Yiqi, looks at home. The president and CEO of bloodstock behemoth WinStar Farm is a long way from the Pisgah Pike but his alliance with Teo Ah Khing, head of the China Horse Club, under whose jurisdiction today's groundbreaking meeting takes place, puts him on the inside looking out at the potential emergence of China as a force in the industry.

"We first linked up with the China Horse Club a couple of years ago with a horse called Daredevil, who won the Champagne Stakes and who now stands at WinStar, and it's just sort of evolved from there," he says.