1. 17Racing Post Thursday, September 25, 2014
BLOODSTOCK WORLD
C
HINA is a country of
many contrasts.
Quite aside from any
socio-political
disparities – not to
be ignored but for debate on
another platform – this is a
country where marshy plains
meet jagged mist-enshrouded
peaks. Western chic and
oriental mystique clash in the
neon haze of its sprawling
cities. Traditional restaurants
muscle for territory alongside
familiar fast food chains – not
the worst of the west’s legacies
but far from the best.
However, one scenario that
resonates in China just as it
does across the globe is the
trainer’s nightmare that is rain
on the stable’s annual open day.
In what would be an
unforgettable trip, I was lucky
enough to be invited to
Shanghai where last week that
fate befell Quinton Cassidy, a
New Zealand native who boasts
a 30-plus string at the China
Horse Club’s newly unveiled
base at Nine Dragons Hill in
Jiaxin, Zhejiang province. The
China Horse Club – growing
rapidly in recognition in part
due to dual Derby winner
Australia, whose part-owner
Teo Ah Khing is founder and
chairman of the operation – is
branded as a lifestyle, business
and thoroughbred racing club.
Part of its mission is to race the
syndicate’s horses within
mainland China, which it will
do with much pomp and
ceremony next month at the
second China Equine Cultural
Festival – more of which later.
Two hours south of Shanghai
– billed by CHC general
manager Eden Harrington as
the ‘engine room of China’
– Nine Dragons Hill is
something of a showcase for
leisure pastimes, offering
visitors a golf club, polo club,
numerous restaurants and, in
contrast to those more sedate
activities, go-karting.
But on a rainy, muggy Friday
Nine Dragons seems almost
empty bar a large group of the
racing club’s members keen to
see their allotted charges
– some seeing them for the first
time, and others, possibly
seeing any horse for the first
time. The group’s reaction is as
it should be, unable to take
their eyes off the majestic
creatures on parade – despite
defending themselves against
the rain, which shows no sign
of playing ball.
A soaked Cassidy, however, is
never seen without a smile on
his face, and seems rightly
proud to show off the yard’s
residents – who are in
remarkable condition given less
than a month ago they made
the three-day journey from
Hohhot in Inner Mongolia to
their new home, a trip that
could easily upset the
constitution of any hot-blooded
racehorse. A former track rider
for Peter Snowden, Cassidy has
spent a lifetime working in
racing, and easily reels off the
pedigree and performances of
each horse – many of whom
will be familiar to readers, such
as Prix Morny third Parliament
Square and Dewhurst runner
The Ferryman, both former
Ballydoyle inmates.
“We think the penny has
dropped with The Ferryman,”
says Cassidy of the Galileo colt,
who had been proving a tricky
customer. “We took off all the
gear, and just went back to
basics with him.”
Joining Cassidy in managing
the yard is Juliet Kagno, a
former jockey in the US who
has brought her passion for the
sport across the Pacific.
“Every day when I walk into
the barn it puts a smile on my
face,” reflects Kagno, surveying
the residents who also include
Montjeu progeny Smoke Screen
and Montjeu Minder, two more
former Coolmore charges. The
barn, not dissimilar to any
American barn the world over,
is a cool, refreshing retreat
from the hot and humid
outdoors.
B
UT while the way of
the horse and the
racing industry is
second nature to
Cassidy and Kagno, it
is worth remembering that not
since the People’s Republic of
China was declared in 1949 has
racing been a regular feature of
the Chinese landscape.
Gambling remains banned
in the country, and
although frequent
showcase meetings are
proving popular, a
number of false starts
are still fresh in the
memory.
In addition, strict
import laws
mean
securing certain veterinary
medications can be difficult
and there is reportedly only one
equine operating theatre in the
country – the CHC has planned
well though, it is in Shanghai.
Two generations have grown
up with little awareness of the
horse as a recreational animal,
but the CHC is acutely
appreciative of the obstacles
facing the growth of racing in
China that it is so passionately
striving towards, and as such
seems to be taking on more
than its fair share in driving the
movement forwards.
A major step is bringing
racing back into the public
consciousness, which it plans to
do on a huge scale next month
by virtue of a four-race meeting
at Nine Dragons Hill as part of
the 2014 China Equine Cultural
Festival, which will be shown
on NMTV. The national
broadcaster has a reach of 500
million, giving the meeting,
held on October 12, potential
to be among the
most-watched on record.
Speaking from the
ornate, elevated polo
clubhouse that will
moonlight as a grandstand for
the meeting, Harrington is a
one-man version of the former
Racing For Change, stirring up
enthusiasm for the upcoming
raceday despite rain still
cascading all around. It’s not
hard to imagine the location
will prove a suitably glamorous
one. The veranda already
boasts standard Royal
Ascot-issue wicker garden
furniture – the type on which
Nick Luck and his Morning Line
guests can be found each year
– while inside, the patterned
parquet floor, high ceiling and
luscious palms create a sense of
the exotic despite the weather.
But away from the crowds,
the Darley Flying Start
graduate talks substance not
style when discussing both the
CHC’s aims and racing in China
as a whole.
“Since its inception the China
Horse Club has endeavoured to
be a contributor to the growth
of the thoroughbred industry in
China,” says Harrington. “With
support from local and
international partners – the
Inner Mongolia Agricultural
University, Coolmore and
France Galop – it has
established thoroughbred
industry training programmes
in Ireland and France for local
Chinese students. It has also
fostered interest in the social
and lifestyle aspects of racing
through local and international
racehorse ownership
programmes.”
I
T IS clear that, should the
ban on gambling in China
be lifted, the potential
market for racing is a
barely comprehensible
one, and laying the foundations
should that day come is a
sensible move. But of most
importance is ensuring those
foundations are solid, and able
to support such a multi-faceted
and complex business as racing.
As Harrington points out,
China has the benefit of
learning from others’ mistakes
on the road to a 21st century
industry, but so too is he aware
that to do the job properly, it
cannot be done quickly.
“It’s not going to happen
overnight,” he says. “It has to
happen organically.”
For that to happen, China
needs the support of its
international peers, ensuring
every sector of the industry
grows appropriately.
But with Teo and Harrington
at the helm in their corner of
the country, the future is
certainly bright for racing in
Shanghai – even if the weather
is not.
Chinese club laying
secure foundations
Pair of €85,000 colts on top at Fairyhouse
By Ryan McElligott
at Fairyhouse
APAIRofcoltsbyMastercraftsman
and Kodiac shared top billing
during the second session of the
Tattersalls Ireland September
Yearling Sale yesterday when
selling for €85,000 apiece.
The session was unable to
match the two six-figure
transactions that dominated the
opening day but trade was once
again very solid throughout. This
enabled the sale’s aggregate to
break through the €7 million
mark for the first time since 2007
– with a session to spare – and
the returns for the first two days
had comfortably surpassed the
corresponding totals from last
year’stwo-dayeditionofthissale.
T h e a f o r e m e n t i o n e d
Mastercraftsman colt attracted
considerable interest and it was
no surprise to see two of the men
who are inextricably linked with
the stallion’s Classic-winning son
The Grey Gatsby, Kevin Ryan and
Stephen Hillen, come out on top
for the half-brother to Canadian
International runner-up Macaw.
Before The Grey Gatsby joined
Kevin Ryan, the Prix du Jockey
Club and Irish Champion Stakes
hero was purchased by Hillen at
Arqana’s breeze-up sale in May
2013.
“We really wanted this horse
and he was top of our list,” said
Hillen. “He’s a lovely, well
balanced colt with a great walk
and his walk was similar to that
of The Grey Gatsby’s – he really
marched on. He’s going to Kevin
and he has been bought on spec
but hopefully he will have an
owner soon.”
The joint session-topper, a
Kodiac colt consigned by Alice
Fitzgerald, came under the
hammer much earlier in the day.
Ross Doyle made a strong play
for the son of the two-year-old
winner Fikrah, but the hammer
eventually came down in favour
of Australian-based agent Jeff
Gordon.
“I liked this horse,” said
Gordon. “He was a really good
physical and he will be staying in
Europe but I’m not sure where he
will go – a couple I bought
yesterday are going to Ralph
Beckett and a couple of others are
heading to France.”
Peter Molony was acting on
behalf of David Redvers when he
we n t to € 6 7 , 0 0 0 fo r a n
Acclamation filly from Rathbarry
Stud who is a sibling to a trio of
two-year-old winners.
“Wegenuinelythoughtthatshe
was the nicest filly in the sale and
her brother New Pearl was a very
talented horse,” said Molony. “He
won a Newmarket maiden first
time out a couple of seasons ago.”
Another popular filly came in
the shape of a daughter of
Intikhab from Baroda and
Colbinstown Studs who will join
Gary Moore after being knocked
down to Russell McNabb for
€65,000.
This is a family that Moore is
already very familiar with having
trained the filly’s two-year-old
half-sister Bronze Maquette to
win the Listed St Hugh’s Stakes
at Newbury last month.
Cathy Grassick picked up
several fillies on behalf of owner
Yvonne Jacques and these
included a €49,000 High
Chaparral sister to theHollywood
Derby third Lucky Chappy. The
agent also spent €45,000 on the
only Exceed And Excel filly in the
sale.
Elsewhere a filly from the first
crop of the Queen Elizabeth II
Stakes hero Poet’s Voice, the only
one on offer by the sire this week,
will join Marco Botti after she
came to agent Jamie Lloyd for
€47,000.
The day returned an aggregate
of €3,599,500, up two per cent
on the corresponding session last
year, while the €17,908 average
and €14,000 median were up 17
per cent and 22 per cent.
An owner braves the rain at
Nine Dragons Hill (left) and
China Horse Club founder
Teo Ah Khing with the Irish
Derby trophy (above)
Katherine Fidler reports
exclusively from the China
Horse Club’s training yard
at Nine Dragons Hill
Eden Harrington:
committed to
growing the
Chinese industry
Son of Kodiac knocked down to agent Jeff Gordon yesterday
vvLot-by-lot details, page 18