Opinion | Jolly good show but for the ending

It has been a long trek to AsiaWorld-Expo this past week, but it has been well worth it on two counts - it has opened my eyes to why equestrianism will never be a mainstream sport and reinforced the belief that big names are what draw the crowds in Hong Kong.

Okay, how many of you know the difference between a trot and a canter? One would have to chat to the equine community to discover the finer points between these gaits. It is unfathomable for the casual observer, and there were many at the Longines Hong Kong Masters. One Kowloon housewife who had come along for the ride said: "The horses are beautiful".

The horses, indeed, were beautiful. When you have seven of the world's top 10 riders including world No 1 Christian Ahlmann of Germany, you are bound to see some decent horseflesh in the mix.

It was all very civilised. You had the corporate community sipping vintage Veuve Clicquot champagne and nibbling on sea bass flown in from Brussels and prepared by a Michelin-starred chef. They nodded their heads knowledgeably at the high jinks out on the competitive arena. From chief executive to housewife, they were all enraptured by the circus.

Yet the sport continues to shoot itself in the foot. Back in 2008, when Hong Kong held the equestrian competition for the Beijing Olympics, the sport's top official, Princess Haya bint al Hussein, the wife of the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, remarked that the sport was in danger of losing its Olympic status. Her biggest worry was that equestrianism had made itself too complex for the common folk as well as the fact that doping had raised its insidious head.

Of the riders who turned up in Hong Kong, Ahlmann and Ireland's Denis Lynch were among six whose horses tested positive for drugs at the 2008 Olympics. Another, Germany's Ludger Beerbaum, was stripped of his team gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics for a similar offence. So behind the glitz and glamour, there is a dark side to the sport.