Brian Kan Ping-chee (; 24 November 1937 – 12 February 2022) was a five-time champion

horse trainer A horse trainer is a person who tends to horses and teaches them different disciplines. Some of the responsibilities trainers have are caring for the animals' physical needs, as well as teaching them submissive behaviors and/or coaching them for e ...

and politician in Hong Kong.

Horse training career

An émigré to the United Kingdom in 1952 who worked in a

Chinese restaurant A Chinese restaurant is an establishment that serves a Chinese cuisine. Most of them are in the Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese style, due to the history of the Overseas Chinese, Chinese diaspora and adapted to local taste preferences, as in t ...

near

Epsom Downs Racecourse Epsom Downs is a Grade 1 racecourse on the hills associated with Epsom in Surrey, England which is used for thoroughbred horse racing. The "Downs" referred to in the name are part of the North Downs. The course, which has a crowd capacity of 13 ...

, Kan found a job as a groom in a horse stable through jockey Teith Tugan and obtained a diploma in

horse management There are many aspects to horse management. Horses, ponies, mules, donkeys and other domesticated equids require attention from humans for optimal health and long life. Living environment Horses require both shelter from natural elements like w ...

. Kan returned to Hong Kong in 1969 and joined the

Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) is one of the oldest institutions in Hong Kong, having been founded in 1884. In 1959, it was granted a Royal Charter and renamed The Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club (). The institution reverted to its original name ...

(as it was then known) as an assistant trainer. He was granted a trainer's licence in the 1978–79 season and had since trained a Hong Kong record of over 830 winners and the winners of 100 cup races until his retirement in 2005. He was five-time champion of 1986–87‚ 1987–88‚ 1988–89‚ 1989–90‚ 2000–01 and his best season was 63 winners in 1989–90. He won the very first

Hong Kong Cup The Hong Kong Cup is a Group 1 flat horse race in Hong Kong which is open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run over a distance of 2000 metres (about miles or 10 furlongs) at Sha Tin, and it is scheduled to take place each year in ...

in 1987–88 with Flying Dancer. He also trained five

Hong Kong Derby The Hong Kong Derby is a Hong Kong Thoroughbred horse race held annually since 1873. Restricted to horses four-years-old only since 1981, the race is run in mid-March and is the premier event on the domestic racing programme with a purse of HK$18 m ...

winners (most recently

Industrial Pioneer Industrial may refer to: Industry * Industrial archaeology, the study of the history of the industry * Industrial engineering, engineering dealing with the optimization of complex industrial processes or systems * Industrial city, a city dominate ...

in 2001) and the winner of the 2000 Audemars Piguet

Queen Elizabeth II Cup The Queen Elizabeth II Cup is a Group One Thoroughbred horse race at Sha Tin Racecourse in the New Territories, Hong Kong. Established in 1975 by the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, it is run annually in April at a distance of 2,000 metres (ten ...

‚

Industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

. Kan relocated to

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

in 2003-04 season and trained 267 winners until he resigned in 2012.

Political career

Kan was an indigenous inhabitant (

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

) born in

Sheung Shui Sheung Shui (, literally "Above-water") is an area in the New Territories, Hong Kong. Sheung Shui Town, a part of this area, is part of the Fanling–Sheung Shui New Town in the North District of Hong Kong. Fanling Town is to its southea ...

in northern

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

. He participated in rural politics and was a member of the

Provisional Regional Council The Regional Council (RegCo; ) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services in the New Territories (excluding New Kowloon). Its services were provided by the Regional Services Department, the executive arm of the R ...

from 1997 to 1999, the

North District Council The North District Council () is one of the 18 Hong Kong district councils and represents the North District. It is one of 18 such councils. Consisting of 22 members, the district council is drawn from 18 constituencies, which elect 18 members, ...

from 2000 to 2004, and the

Election Committee The Election Committee is a Hong Kong electoral college, the function of which is to select the Chief Executive (CE) and, since 2021, to elect 40 of the 90 members of the Legislative Council. Established by Annex I of the Basic Law of Hong ...

from 2000 to 2006 as the representative of the Sheung Shui Rural Committee and the

Heung Yee Kuk The Heung Yee Kuk, officially the Heung Yee Kuk N.T., is a statutory advisory body representing establishment interests in the New Territories, Hong Kong. The council is a powerful organisation comprising heads of rural committees which repres ...

. He ran for the Legislative Council elections in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, and

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

but was not elected.

Football management

Kan was the president of

Double Flower FA Double Flower Football Association () is a Hong Kong football club which plays in the Hong Kong Second Division. The club was very successful in 1990s in the then top-tier First Division under the name Instant-Dict (). Major events * 1981–8 ...

from 1986 to 1988. In the autumn of 1987 he was arrested on suspicion of

match-fixing In organized sports, match fixing is the act of playing or officiating a match with the intention of achieving a pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. There are many reasons why match fixing might take place, ...

after the

Hong Kong Football Club Hong Kong Football Club (HKFC; ), established in 1886, is a private members' club in Hong Kong. The name reflects the origin as a club for playing association football and rugby. The club is situated in Happy Valley, with the sports pitche ...

filed a complaint with the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) against his club alleging

. He was later released without charge.

Criminal convictions

On 28 February 1989, Kan was found guilty of five counts of indecent assault on his Filipino domestic helper and was fined HK$5,000 by the

Shatin Sha Tin, also spelt Shatin, is a neighbourhood along Shing Mun River in the eastern New Territories, Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Sha Tin District. Sha Tin is one of the neighbourhoods of the Sha Tin New Town project. The ne ...

Magistrates' Court A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings. Courts * Magistrates' court (England and Wales) * Magistrate's Cour ...

for each count (HK$25,000 in total). The magistrate did not impose a custodial sentence on Kan having regard to his contributions to the community and the impact of the case already on him. Kan was charged in November 2011 with electoral corruption in the village representative election in 2011. Kan offered HK$130,000 to a village representative, who owned a grocery store, to vote for him as Sheung Shui Rural Committee chairman, which carries ex-officio membership of the

. Although he claimed that he was not aware of the contents in the envelope he left in the grocery store, the judge did not believe his side of the story and found him guilty of the offence. He was sentenced to 3.5 months' imprisonment which was increased to 12 months in October 2013 upon appeal by the prosecution. Kan was ordered to return to prison to serve the additional sentence after completing his original one.

Death

Kan died at his home in Sheung Shui, on 12 February 2022, at the age of 84.

References