China: A Co Kildare trainer hopes to revive horseracing in the Chinese capital after building a state-of-the-art racecourse, reports Clifford Coonan in Beijing
A horse trainer from Kildare town has made it his mission to revive the sport of kings in China - dormant since Mao Zedong's communists banned horseracing in 1949 - and has built a state-of-the-art race course in Beijing.
"The Chinese seem to be very interested in racing. It's fairly well known the Chinese like any sport that's competitive," says Kevin Connolly, who has run the racecourse - the biggest in mainland China - for two and a half years after starting it up from nothing with the backing of a Hong Kong billionaire.
Vital to the success of the Beijing Jockey Club is a change in the law forbidding gambling. At the moment, Mr Connolly says, betting is "a bit of a grey area".
Only what the Chinese call "zai" or "guessing" is allowed, where the punter guesses the winning horse and backs it on that basis.
"China is changing very fast and we hope it will change in that respect as well. If the law changes, when that happens, our business will just explode," Mr Connolly says, walking past the white railings surrounding the track.
"This is kind of a test situation to see how it works. It's all on-track and you must be a member of the jockey club to take part. There are no bookies and no private betting," he says.
Mr Connolly knows racing in Asia and the region well, having worked in the former Portuguese colony, Macau, as well as Australia.
The Beijing Jockey Club itself is an oasis of green on the city's dusty outskirts. Although the 160-hectare club in Beijing's Tongzhou district is not quite as easily reached as Leopardstown or Fairyhouse, the club is introducing shuttle services to help punters get there at the weekend.
The Chinese love of a flutter is famous. In Hong Kong, the former British colony which reverted to China in 1997, and where betting on horses is still allowed, the Hong Kong Jockey's clubs earnings made up 10 per cent of total gross domestic product (GDP) in the late 1990s.
Indeed, the backing for the Beijing Jockey Club comes from Yun Pung Cheng, a Hong Kong-based tycoon.
The next big step will be the construction of a 40,000-seat viewing stand.
Mr Connolly grew up around horses - his father was a trainer and his brother a jockey - and he clearly relishes the challenge of getting the Beijing Jockey Club up and running.
"Mandy is a joy to watch," he says, stroking the muzzle of a chestnut mare, her coat still shaggy after the winter. He walks along rows of pristine stables which house the track's total horse population of 2,800. Of these, 900 are racers, many brought in from Australia and Europe and 700 of them are currently in training.
"We also have a breeding operation - we're expecting 470 foals this year. We cover 700 mares and have 24 stallions. This makes us one of the biggest stud farms in the world," he says.
The club has 16 trainers from England, France, South Africa, Australia, Italy, the US, Hong Kong and Macau. There are around 30 jockeys, all Chinese and trained at the club.
It's still early days at the track but Mr Connolly says the standard of both jockey and horse is improving swiftly.
"Thoroughbred racing is new here and the standard is a little bit lower than in countries where racing is established. But the improvement has been phenomenal. There are three or four jockeys here who would hold their own anywhere. They run great races," he says.
The next stage of development is to build up a Chinese circuit for racing, with Beijing joining the ranks of horseracing powerhouses Hong Kong and Macau.
"The facilities we have here are some of the best in the world. Our short-term goal is for racehorses to go to Hong Kong or Macau, or have horses from those places race up here," he says.
"After a while I can't see why we can't have a circuit of Hong Kong-Macau-Beijing-Guangzhou-Shanghai. It would be the biggest in the world," he says.
At the moment, the Beijing Jockey Club is the only officially licensed racetrack in China but there are other courses starting up in Hangzhou, Wuhan and Nanjing.
Mr Connolly wants to see a racing authority introduced to monitor the sport as it grows.
"We'd like a racing constitution. It's best to do it now because once everything gets going, it's too late," he says.
The course has three international standard racetracks, two turf and one dirt track. All races are on the flat, although Connolly says he'd love to see steeplechase, too.
Current attendances at the Beijing Jockey Club are around 1,500 per meeting, many of them expatriates.
Mr Connolly reckons that figure should rise to 5,000 next month, once the Jockey Club starts an advertising campaign.
Races are also broadcast live on local television.
There are eight races on the card on Saturdays. From May 1st the club will race twice a week, on Saturday and Sunday and Connolly says the club will have prize money this year of 77 million RMB or €7.7 million.
"The prize money will get more favourable when we start selling horses. We also lease horses," he says.
Another project the club is involved in is helping the Chinese to develop an equestrian team for the 2008 Olympics. In a country where the only horses most people ever see are ones pulling carts, it is not surprising that China does not have show jumping or dressage teams. The club is also bidding to host the equestrian match events in the 2008 Games.
"Horse racing is really a whole new industry in China and it's been very exciting in every respect. If anyone told us we'd be where we are now after less than three years, I'd have said they were mad."