HK flexes its racing muscle

It was Hong Kong's crowning glory - the biggest day yet, not only in the annals of Hong Kong racing but in the collective history of Hong Kong sport. International day at Sha Tin on December 14 has been described by many foreign visitors as the finest day of horse racing, anywhere in the world - a huge compliment to the city in general and to the Hong Kong Jockey Club in particular.

But how did Hong Kong out-muscle the long-established and traditional horse racing countries such as England, Ireland, France and America to provide this magnificent end-of-year extravaganza, where the best horses from around the world compete for $56 million in prizemoney across four races that each carries the coveted 'Group One' tag of globally recognised excellence?

It was Shakespeare who advised us there is nothing in this world either intrinsically good or bad, but rather that thinking makes it so. And Hong Kong provided vivid support for the Shakespearean aphorism in 1970, when a number of serious horse-doping cases caused a complete re-think on the structure of racing and the very fabric of Jockey Club operations. The changes signalled an end to the bad old days of amateur racing and the beginning of a journey that led to Hong Kong to becoming a world leader in the sport.

At a meeting on May 25, 1970, Peter Williams - later to become the chairman of the Board of Stewards - proposed a feasibility study into the possibility of introducing professional racing into Hong Kong.

In August 1971, the Club - reportedly by unanimous vote of the stewards - went professional, announcing that three overseas trainers were to be engaged, prominent foreign jockeys invited here and local boys indentured as apprentices with a view to producing 'home-grown' professional jockeys.

It was the start of something bigger than anyone at the time could have anticipated - the humble beginnings of a racing system which would become a lucrative and admired international racing centre within just two decades.