Wednesday, April 21, 2010

“China plans £2.6bn horse racing complex” plus 3 more

“China plans £2.6bn horse racing complex” plus 3 more

China plans £2.6bn horse racing complex

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 02:12 AM PDT

By Peter Foster in Beijing
Published: 9:40AM BST 21 Apr 2010

An ambitious 10-year project, backed by developers in Dubai, aims to create a "Tianjin Horse City" with an international equestrian college, horse-breeding centre, auction base, animal feed factory, racetrack, and 7-star hotel with sweeping, phoenix-shaped grandstand.

The Dubai-based Meydan group, the developer of the world's biggest horse racing complex, said it had been invited by the Chinese government to use its know-how to take horse racing in China to the next level.

"Horse racing is a brand-new industry in China," said Teo Ah Khing, the managing director of the Malaysian TAK Design Consultants, which is raising finance for the project, "They have little dots all over the country of horse racing and breeding but no structure." Comparisons are being drawn with Dubai which held its first race in 1992 with virtually no infrastructure in place, but within a decade was hosting the world's richest race, the $10m Dubai World Cup.

China is hoping to emulate that success, having legalised horse racing in 2008, however sources at the China Equestrian Association cautioned that the country was still woefully short of the experience and expertise required to run such a project.

Previous attempts to kick-start racing in China ran into difficulties, with the government shutting down a number of racecourse in 2000 in an anti-gambling campaign. In 2005 nearly 600 horses belonging to a failed Beijing racecourse were put down, to the fury of animal rights campaigners.

Racing was introduced in China by the British in the 19th and early 20th century, with the sport becoming a popular pastime. By the 1930s Shanghai boasted one of the largest racetracks in the world, the outline of which can still be seen in one of the city's parks.

However the sport was banned after the Communist revolution as a colonial and backward pursuit, but after a false start in the 1990s was legalised in 2008 when the former colonial "concession" of Wuhan in central China won the first licenses to stage races.

In a separate development, the owners of Wuhan's racing operations, Orient Lucky Horse Corporation, announced it was intending it was pushing ahead with its own three-year plan for a horse city, with luxury hotels in a bid to attract more tourists to the city.

Wuhan last year sent a delegation to Kentucky in the United States as part of its drive to create an international-standard horse racing industry in China, and Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province is developing a track in close co-operation with the Australian government.

Work on the Tianjin Horse City is slated to begin next month, with plans to complete the 660-acre equestrian college, stud farm and animal feed factory by the end of 2011, with the first 1,000 students scheduled to be enrolled the following year.

A stud farm breeding 1,000 horses a year, drawing on international bloodstock and an auction centre selling 700 horses a year are due for completion by the end of 2012. A luxury 3,600 bed hotel and accommodation for 20,000 workers is also planned.

The success of the project may well hinge on whether China's government moves to put racing on a commercial footing by legalising gambling which is currently limited to a lottery-style system where punters win scratch-lottery tickets for picking the winning horse.

But despite persistent lobbying in recent years from local governments to relax the rules, China's central government has refused to break a taboo on gambling which is a favourite pastime of the Chinese, with an estimated £50bn flowing out of China on illegal gambling every year.

The Chinese racing industry has argued that legalising on-track betting could generate up to three million jobs, clean up illegal gambling and generate some £4bn in tax revenues.

However a report by the Kentucky China Trade Centre last year played down the immediate prospects for expanding the sport in China.

"We cannot see a bright future for commercial horse racing, horse racing gambling and racetracks in mainland China in terms of the central government's attitude towards the issue and the circumstances of laws prohibiting it," it said.

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West trail is a winning one for horse racing jockey Bejarano

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 12:01 AM PDT

HORSE RACING: Jockey's dominance in Southland evokes memories of greats Pincay, McCarron.

Rafael Bejarano came to Southern California in 2007 on the advice of the late Bobby Frankel as a 25-year-old jockey with much promise.

Now, 2<MD+,%30,%55,%70>1/<MD-,%0,%55,%70>2 years later, he's a polished 28-year-old rider who has taken the Southland by storm and evoked memories of such Hall of Fame jockeys as Laffit Pincay Jr. and Chris McCarron.

Bejarano won his first six Southern California meets to match McCarron's record streak since Hollywood Park added its autumn meet in 1981. In the process, he also joined McCarron (1983) and Patrick Valenzuela (2003) as the only riders to sweep the Southland's five major meets in one year.

Then, on Sunday, he joined horse racing royalty when he became the first rider since Pincay in 1979-81 to win three consecutive Santa Anita riding titles.

Yes, it's safe to say the 28-year-old Peruvian as made himself quite at home, and he's quick to give credit to Frankel for the move west.

"He opened the door for me here in California," said Bejarano, who served notice what he could accomplish here when he rode six winners on Santa Anita Derby Day in 2006 during a one-day stay.

"I'm happy for meeting (Frankel) when I was in Kentucky and I came here to work with his horses and it was a big pleasure to be the (main) person to ride for him. I enjoyed it a lot, and I had a lot of

great winners for him on some good horses. God bless him."

But Bejarano believes any comparison between himself and Pincay is a bit much.

"I'm still learning," he said. "Everyday I'm still learning something, and I'm not going to be like Laffit Pincay because there's only one Laffit Pincay in the world. But I try to do my best, try to be myself. I really enjoy what I do. I really love my job and that's why I'm doing so good."

Talk to most trainers who have employed Bejarano's services since he arrived and they'll mention his work ethic as a major reason for his success. He also possesses all the other intangibles that make a great rider.

"Obviously, he's very good at what he does," trainer Carla Gaines said. "He's got great hands on a horse. He's athletic, very well balanced. It's all there.

"One thing about him that is very positive is that he's kind to the horses. He has a lot of patience, and you'll never see him really go to the whip unless necessary. He loves his horses, he's kind to them and he never abuses them."

Unlike some riders who are thought to be stronger on front-runners or closers, Gaines said Bejarano is the complete package.

"He fits a lot of different types of horses," she said. "He's good on the front end, he's good off the pace and he's got a light hand. With hands like that, you get along with a lot more horses than the next guy. He's very versatile."

Hall of Famer Neil Drysdale, As Bejarano prepares to begin his third Hollywood Park spring-summer meet today with mounts in six of the eight races, including the Paco Gonzalez-trained Face and an Ace in the $60,000 Harry Henson Stakes, he learned Tuesday he's secured the mount on Arkansas Derby winner Line of David for the Kentucky Derby on May 1.

Veteran Jon Court rode the John Sadler-conditioned colt in Arkansas for his first victory on dirt, but Bejarano was aboard when he scored the first two victories of his career over the Santa Anita turf and Sadler decided to go back to the jockey who knows the son of Lion Heart best.

Bejarano has been riding Setsuko for trainer Richard Mandella, who wants to run the Pleasantly Perfect colt in the Derby. But a lack of graded stakes earnings likely will keep Setsuko out of the Run for the Roses, and Bejarano was looking for a contender who would give him a sixth try at his first Derby victory after a fourth-place finish aboard Papa Clem last year.



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Horse racing: Sunland bucks trend as betting take rises

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 11:11 PM PDT

SUNLAND PARK -- In a country mired in recession, horse racing is a long-shot industry.

Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino, though, continues to gallop along.

After looking at a drop of almost 10 percent in the total amount of bets received early in the season, the track rallied and will post an increase of around 3 percent to almost $64 million, track publicity director Eric Alwan said.

"I thought maybe we'd be flat, but it continues to rise, even in these tough economic times," Alwan said of the 2009-10 season, which ended Tuesday. "We're the only track in the country that's up. That's unheard of in these times -- showing growth."

Mutuel manager Steve Fedunak echoed that.

"Disposable income in a recession is usually the first thing that goes," he said, and noted that handles at California's Santa Anita Racetrack dropped 11 percent. "That they are still playing us -- that's loyalty. Racing fans didn't desert us; they didn't run away.

"I'm very impressed. I didn't know how we'd handle the recession, and we did very well."

This was a landmark year for the track, which produced Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird last year. The Sunland Derby was graded for the first time and will probably send winner Endorsement and runner-up Conveyance to the May 1 Kentucky Derby.

Endorsement should go off between the third and fifth favorite.

"That really put us on the map," racing director Dustin Dix said. "This year, a horse from the Sunland Derby won't be 50-1. Our

horses will get more respect now."

The Grade 3 Sunland Derby was attended by a track record, 18,564, and the amount bet was a New Mexico record, $2,798,980.

For the season, on-track betting was down slightly less than 1 percent, which was more than made up for by growth in off-track betting.

Purses totaled about $18 million, and Alwan said the quality of horses was at an all-time high.

"Our trainers are so strong; you can't just win it with any horse," Alwan said. "You can't come in from a big track and bully us. You've got to have a top-flight runner from a top-flight track to win here, and that's a big change."

Dix thinks the track will continue to grow.

"What we're looking to do is get the Sunland Oaks graded," he said of the race that's immediately before the Sunland Derby.

"It can be a festival of racing that weekend. We're still a few years away from getting both graded, but that's our goal."

Right now, Sunland Park is running with the wind at its back.

Bret Bloomquist may be reached at bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; 546-6359.





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Veitch on horse racing: Playing by the rules

Posted: 21 Apr 2010 02:12 AM PDT

By MICHAEL VEITCH
On Horse Racing

The following is the first installment in a multi-column exclusive examining medication in horse racing

Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr.'s admission that Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown received steroids during his 2008 campaign reignited the long debate over medication in thoroughbred racing.

With the death of Barbaro in 2007, and the fatal breakdown of Eight Belles in Big Brown's Derby while finishing second, the steroid admission brought the issue to a boiling point.

A point so hot that an angry public looked past the fact that the loss of Barbaro and Eight Belles had nothing to do with medication abuse.

We are now in a period, I believe, marked by a disconnect between a suspicious racing public and the actual medication practices of those in the industry.

A "credibility gap," if you will, that I'd like to address in this series.

Today's installment is with New York trainers Jim Bond, Gary Contessa and Pat Kelly, all accomplished veterans with Grade I wins who have devoted their lives to a game they deeply love.

"Unfortunately, I think the fans are being influenced by a few bad eggs," said Bond, who saddled Will's Way to win the Travers and Whitney stakes at Saratoga.

Bond, who said the rules are not tough enough for consistent violators, joins his fellow horsemen in the acceptance of Lasix, the anti-bleeding medication, as a part of modern racing.

"It is inhumane to see a horse bleed," he said. "Of course, the reason for bleeding is a zillion-dollar question. Is it pesticides, over-racing, or something else? I do believe it helps performance; too many Europeans come over here and immediately put it in their horses."

Contessa, a perennial leading New York trainer whose multiple graded stakes winners include Magnolia Jackson and Rite Moment, is upset about the negative image of racing.

"I believe people are of the impression that horses are dumb animals that are over-medicated and forced to perform by money-hungry owners and trainers," he said. "They do not realize that horses are like human athletes that perform hard, and in between races go out and train hard. Just like human athletes, they strain muscles, sprain ankles and hurt their joints, and need medication to feel better and recover."

Contessa defended his profession, saying most horsemen play by the rules and love the horses that provide their living.

Among the many university studies on the subject, he cited a New Bolton Center report that said 87 percent of horses bleed during performance.

"We are in a 'catch-22' here," said Contessa. "In Europe there is not year-round racing, but we have it here, so it seems the more you race, the more you need Lasix."

Kelly, whose most recent Grade I winner is Evening Attire in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, echoed the same theme.

He also acknowledged the public perception of "something going on" with the unsavory aspect of people trying to make gambling scores more important than the sport of competition.

"I do think we need Lasix for racing," said Kelly. "But year-round racing kind of forces your hand. We don't have the luxury today of turning horses out for six months. I don't have a problem with Lasix. It is a therapeutic medication and I think it helps the horses. Like anything, it can be all consuming if you give it a lot. In the grand scheme of things, I don't have a problem with it at all."

Coming next Wednesday

Bond, Contessa and Kelly discuss steroids, medications, and breakdowns.

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