Andrew Harding

Despite rainfall in excess of 250 millimetres, or nearly 10 inches, during the week, Sunday's FWD Champions Day meeting came off without a hitch, as local horses took home the lion's share of the HK$72 million on offer. "They did an extraordinary job, with these types of weather conditions, the ground was extremely fair and it enabled all the horses to participate," HKJC CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said of the track maintenance team. "Nobody could believe that with over 250mm of rain how well our track performed and provided fair going...

Helios Express (Aus) (Toronado {Ire}), winner of the Hong Kong Classic Mile and Hong Kong Classic Cup in his two most recent appearances, leads a field of 14 selected runners for the HK$26 million (£2.6 million/US$3.3 million) BMW Hong Kong Derby to be held at Sha Tin Racecourse Sunday, Mar. 24. The John Size trainee will look to join the likes of the late Rapper Dragon (Aus) (Street Boss) and Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) as horses to sweep the series. Helios Express (rated 102) has been supplanted at the...

Officials at the Hong Kong Jockey Club could offer their devoted fans only limited access to the Longines Hong Kong International Races meeting from 2020 to 2022, a necessity attributable to the Coronavirus outbreak in March 2020, and while the attendance restrictions were gradually eased over the next few years, there were certain parameters and restrictions in place to ensure the show would go on. With things more or less back to normal in the SAR, the patrons--a reported 65,252 of them--poured through the Sha Tin turnstiles Sunday afternoon to...

Prize money for Hong Kong's 2023/24 racing season will rise by 8 per cent with increases coming across every class of competition; Griffins to Class 1 and the 4-year-old Classic Series will have an additional HK$94 million on offer. Including bonuses--but not reflecting Hong Kong's Group 1 races, the seven elite contests featured at Longines Hong Kong International Races, FWD Champions Day, and Group 2 and Group 3 races--the figure will grow to HK$1.38 billion next season. Details of the prize money structure, which will include Group racing, will be...

The Laboratory of Racing Chemistry, Japan (LRC) is now the sixth fully appointed IFHA Reference Laboratory following the approval of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) Reference Laboratory Appointment Committee (RLAC). The LRC was granted a provisional appointment as an IFHA Reference Laboratory in July of 2021, and its on-site assessment took place in June of 2022. "I want to commend the Laboratory of Racing Chemistry for its hard work, diligence and patience in becoming an IFHA Reference Laboratory," said Reference Laboratory Appointment Committee (RLAC) Chair Andrew Harding. "This...

A total of 162 nominations from 10 racing jurisdictions, including no fewer than 61 Group 1/Grade I winners, have been received by the Hong Kong Jockey Club for the HK$95-million Longines Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin Racecourse Dec. 13. "We are delighted to have such strong nominations for our four Group 1 races in December," said Andrew Harding, Executive Director, Racing for the HKJC. "Considering the current climate in regard to the COVID-19 situation, it just reiterates that the Longines Hong Kong International Races are recognised the world...

The 54th International Conference of Horseracing Authorities began on Monday in a virtual format, with a series of videos to be released over the first two weeks of October. The conference organized by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities is traditionally held in Paris, France on the day after the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, but the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a virtual format this year. The first panel was entitled 'Sustaining the Business of Racing and Sports in the Midst of a Global Pandemic and Economic Uncertainty.' Hosted by media...

It has been a season of upheaval in Hong Kong, the racing product threatened first by social unrest and then the coronavirus. But for the most part, the Hong Kong Jockey Club has been able to stay the course and Tuesday, it announced across-the-board increases in prize money for the 2020-21 season, including a 20% bump for its domestic centrepiece, the BMW Hong Kong Derby. "At a time when prize money levels are being cut worldwide, the prize money increases announced by the Hong Kong Jockey Club are very welcome...

The Asian Racing Conference has returned to South Africa for the first time in more than two decades, and following opening ceremonies on Tuesday evening panels are set to take place Feb. 19 through 21 in Cape Town. The Hong Kong Jockey Club's Executive Director of Racing Andrew Harding, also secretary-general of the Asian Racing Federation, gave the opening address on behalf of HKJC Chief Executive Officer and ARF Chairman Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, who has remained in Hong Kong to manage the Club's response to the coronavirus pandemic. "Winfried has asked...