Raceday Anchors Busy Week In China

[Wandering Eyes]

The fourth conference of the China Horse Owners Alliance was held on Aug. 30 at the Yulong International Hotel. Zhang Yuesheng, owner of Yulong Horse Group, was elected as the chairman of the CHOA, while a new race was also announced: the 1600-metre, 2 million RMB ($300,000) Chairman Cup, to be held in 2019. The purse dwarfs that of the 1.75-million RMB ($256,000) Chengdu Dubai International Cup and the former 1-million RMB ($146,000) Inglis China-Australia Cup.

The Yulong Autumn Sale was held the following day. The majority of the 174-horse catalogue were Thoroughbreds, with an additional 33 horses such as Akhal-Teke horses, warmbloods, Arabian horses, ponies and Friesian horses. In total, 173 lots were offered and 87 sold, delivering a 50.3% clearance rate. The turnover is 19.6 million RMB ($2.87-million), which is 6.6-million RMB more than the Yulong Thoroughbred Sale in May.

Eagles Cleaved Sky (Aus) (lot 47), a 4-year-old colt by Purrealist (Aus), is the highest-rated horse in the Yulong Jockey Club. He was offered for sale but failed to reach his reserve at 1.8-million RMB ($270,000). The defending champion of the China-Australia Cup was confronted with the first rainy raceday of the Yulong International Racing Tournament since 2017 and was defeated by Club Star (Aus) (lot 52), a 7-year-old son of Starcraft (NZ).

The sale topper was Guan Yi Zhan Shen (Aus) (lot 11), a 3-year-old colt by Sepoy (Aus) sold for 750,000 RMB ($110,000) to Mr. Chen Hongwei, who is also a horse owner in the Hong Kong Jockey Club. But the topper’s thunder was stolen in the inaugural 800,000 RMB ($117,000) Inglis Cup by the bought-in Ji Di (Aus) (lot 19). The 3-year-old son of Artie Schiller is owned by Yulong and the winner’s prize of 500,000 RMB eclipses the 420,000 RMB at which he was unsold.

With purses of 2.8-million RMB ($400,000), the Sept. 1 raceday is the richest in mainland China. The first two races, the Inglis China-Australia Cup and Inglis Cup, are sponsored by Inglis. Andrew Munce, the COO of Inglis, attended the meeting and said, “Mr. Zhang has been a great supporter of our company in Australia and we express our great thanks to him. We would also like to express our thoughts and congratulate him on the amazing job he’s done up here, building this complex. This racecourse is amazing and world-class and as good as anywhere else in the world.”

The third race is the 200,000 RMB ($30,000) Tattersalls European 2YO S. The fourth and fifth races are both worth 600,000 RMB ($88,000) and sponsored by Yulong. These two races are the Yulong Breeders’ Cup and the Yulong Derby. The last race is a 100,000 RMB handicap (1800m) won by Group 3 winner Excess Knowledge (GB) (Monsun {Ger}).

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