Hong Kong horse racing industry steeped in history
發佈日期: 2026-02-18 21:06
TVB News
The Chinese New Year Raceday is one of the city's most vibrant Lunar New Year traditions.
Horse racing accompanied the city's rise, witnessing its prosperity and producing world-class champions along the way.
What does it take to train a champion racehorse?
Swimming; trotting; running laps - here at the Shatin Racecourse, these are just part of a racehorse's daily routine.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club introduced ten treadmills last October, which supports four training modes like fast trotting and walking, allowing year-round, all-weather indoor training.
"First of all, the treadmill can help them, giving them light exercise to help them, recover and heal up better in a way," said trainer Pierre Ng. "The horse needs exercise, they need to exercise to gain their energy, to improve their conditions or improve their injuries, so by doing that, the treadmill is, in a way, can help them pick up their forms faster than just resting in the box."
Without a jockey on board, horses recovering from injuries can resume training earlier, with zero weight burden.
Through continuous innovation in training, the club has nurtured numerous international stars.
The city is currently home to about 1,350 race horses, which is just less than one percent of the global total, yet two of them - Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior - have galloped their ways into the world's top ten horses, in the world's best racehorse rankings last year.
"The Jockey Club is always committed to investing in technology, so as to improve our training facilities and enhance our horses' welfare and performance," said K.L. Cheng, head of Dual Site Stables Operations at the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
"So what we are looking at at the moment, is trying to leverage AI technology to see how we can monitor the horses' health condition better in the stables."
The Jockey Club said it will continue to invest in high-quality stabling and training facilities, including renovation project at the Shatin Stables which is currently in full swing.
Horse racing in Hong Kong dates back to the mid-19th century. For over a century, the thunder of hooves has never stopped, mirroring the city's development and symbolising its enduring vibrancy.
"I would say gambling had never been legalised in China, before and after 1949, so before that you could see that, of course, for many times, we can see there are so many casinos opening in Shanghai and in Guangzhou and in cities like that," said Lau Chi-pang, co-ordinator for Hong Kong and South China Historical Research Programme at Lingnan University.
"But then legalising gambling in such a form like Hong Kong, mixing it with horse racing, I guess this is an invention of Hong Kong, not that common elsewhere on this planet, and of course after 1949, gambling is prohibited in new China.
"But then in Hong Kong, people in Hong Kong, they were allowed to gamble on horse racing, which is permitted by the government, so it is quite a huge difference between the two places."
Last season alone, total racing wagering turnover exceeded 138.8 billion, contributing over 12.88 billion in betting duty.
