Sending the world's best sprinter to an exhibition race can pay off for Hong Kong Jockey Club

Racing fans around the world might think it's a strange idea when they read that champion galloper Ka Ying Rising might have a race later this year at a non-betting, exhibition meeting in China.

While the superstar prepares for his final appearance of the current campaign, looking to make it 20 wins in succession in the Chairman's Sprint Prize at the Champions Day meeting on April 26, other plans are afoot that could offer a new stage to a horse who, to date, has only ever run at two racetracks - Sha Tin in Hong Kong and Royal Randwick in Sydney.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) has plans to restart the racing program for its Conghua (pronounced 'chongfa') training centre, about an hour out of Guangzhou.

And Ka Ying Rising Looks the star attraction.

The intent to race at the state of the art training complex is not new - in fact, it was always part of the plan after the centre opened in August, 2018.

On March 23, 2019, the club held its inaugural 5-race meeting at the track, when Nordic Warrior - ridden b Mathew Chadwick and trained by Richard Gibson - made history as the first winner there, with a needs-only attendance and small makeshift grandstand.

While it is a widely-believed myth that there is no legal gambling in mainland China - there is sports betting - betting on racing is illegal and so there was no wagering on that meeting.

The HKJC's intention at that point was to race on an occasional basis at the track but then Covid19 came along and a lot of intentions were disrupted everywhere.

Only now has the Jockey Club been able to track back to those racing intentions, with a tentative expectation of two to three meetings a year, and the overall aim is to turn Conghua meetings into a "racing tourism" attraction.

One comparison has been made with Baden-Baden in a Germany, where the annual G1 events on the track are just part of an overall festival of food, drink and local culture in the famous Black Forest spa town (pictured).

The race meeting scheduled for Conghua in November, 2026 year will have food and culture events along similar lines around it - but, of course, it will still have no betting.

Some racing commentators had speculated that perhaps the "exhibition" meeting in Conghua might have betting offered remotely - in Hong Kong as an arm's-length simulcast, for example - but that will not be happening.

And now the Hong Kong Jockey Club is talking about spicing up the card by switching its primary lead-up race to the Hong Kong Sprint in December - the G2 Jockey Club Sprint - to the Conghua card.

What that would do the black type status of the races must be up In the air but it would achieve a couple of positives.

Firstly, if you're looking to give a high profile to a new event to put fans in the seats of the flashy new grandstand (pictured) that was completed in March, then what better way to attract racing tourists than the opportunity to witness the world's best sprinter strutting his stuff? It's promotional gold.

Since Ka Ying Rising spends a lot of time between runs at the Conghua Training Centre anyway, trainer David Hayes sees no issue at all with the five-year-old contesting a race there as well.

The details of how and where the meeting would be telecast are yet to be announced, though the club's own broadcast wing is conducting practice runs and that would ensure Ka Ying Rising's legion of fans worldwide would not have to miss the appearance.

Perhaps it could go out as a live-streaming event through the club's website, the way that feature barrier draws and international trackwork sessions already do.

But, for the Jockey Club, there is another, and more clearly definable benefit to having Ka Ying Rising run at a fledgling racecourse in a race where betting won't be available - Ka Ying Rising costs the HKJC millions every time he starts.

Take his latest course record-busting win last week in the G2 The Sprint Cup, when he made it 19 successive wins, and almost 97 % of all win bets on the race were on Ka Ying Rising in the Jockey Club's tote pools.

In Hong Kong, there is a 17.5 % deduction from the totalisator pool to pay government taxes and other costs, before the rest is split amongst the backers of the winner.

All fine business until you have an overwhelming favourite, because there is also a legislated minimum win dividend in Hong Kong of $10.50 for every $10 bet.

When Ka Ying Rising won The Sprint Cup, the race held $HK 63.8 million in the win pool. After taking out the 17.5 per cent deduction, that left $52.66 million to pay winning bets.

Unfortunately for the club, there were 6,159,945.4 winning $10 units on Ka Ying Rising, so the required total payout was $64.68 million - and the Jockey Club is the entity required to top it up.

And that is the situation whenever Ka Ying Rising runs these days.

So, aside from looking a solid gold racing tourism attraction for the club, not having to make up that $12 million difference to pay out the bets would leave the HKJC on the right side of the ledger with money to make sure of a very nice prizemoney race to make it all worthwhile for everyone.