Hong Kong International Races (香港國際賽事) is an event consisting of the four most prestigious horse races in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

hosted by the

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 ...

. The four races are:

Hong Kong Sprint The Hong Kong Sprint 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 1,200 metres (about 6 furlongs) at Sha Tin, and it is scheduled to take place each year in mid De ...

(1200m),

Hong Kong Mile The Hong Kong Mile 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 1,600 metres (about 1 mile) at Sha Tin, and it is scheduled to take place each year in mid December. ...

(1600m),

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 ...

(2000m), and

Hong Kong Vase The Hong Kong Vase 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 2,400 metres (about miles or 12 furlongs) at Sha Tin, and it is scheduled to take place each year ...

(2400m). The event is run annually in mid-December at

Sha Tin Racecourse Sha Tin Racecourse is one of the two racecourses for horse racing in Hong Kong. It is located in Sha Tin District, Sha Tin in the New Territories. It is managed by Hong Kong Jockey Club. Penfold Park is encircled by the track, and the Hon ...

. The event has been sponsored by

Cathay Pacific Airways Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA), more widely known as Cathay Pacific (), is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport. The airline's operations and subsidiaries have s ...

from 2004 to 2011. But since 2012, the Swiss watch brand,

Longines Compagnie des Montres Longines, Francillon S.A., or simply Longines (), is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832, the company has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group and its predec ...

, has been sponsoring the event, with its official title as Longines Hong Kong International Races. ongines Hong Kong International Races http://www.longines.com/brand/news/2012/6/Longines-and-The-Hong-Kong-Jockey-Club/ref> The event is televised around the globe. In 2006, the total purse was HKD $62million, which will be increased to HKD $110 million in 2022.

History

1989 marked the start of the Hong Kong Cup, which was initially called Hong Kong Invitation Cup and restricted to horses from

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and Hong Kong. The first winner was

Flying Dancer {{Infobox thoroughbred racehorse , horsename = Flying Dancer , image = , caption = , sire = Ballybrit , grandsire = Wandering Eyes , dam = Pur Sang , damsire = In The Purple , sex = Gelding , foaled = 1982 , country = New Zealand , co ...

, owned by

Lim Por Yen Lim Por-yen (; c. 1914 – 18 February 2005) was a Hong Kong industrialist. He founded the Lai Sun Group, and his family was the biggest shareholder of Asia Television. Biography Lim Por-yen was born in Chaoyang, Guangdong, and moved to Hon ...

and trained by

Ping Chee Kan Ping may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Ping, a domesticated Chinese duck in the illustrated book '' The Story about Ping'', first published in 1933 * Ping, a minor character in ''Seinfeld'', an NBC sitcom * Ping, a c ...

. The race quickly gained attention and was gradually opened to horses from other countries. Starting in 1991 other races were added to the program and today horses from all over the world compete in the event.

Races

Hong Kong Cup

The

is the world’s richest turf race over 2000 meters with a total purse of HKD$34million in 2022, and was the finale of the now defunct

World Racing Championships In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

from 1999 to 2005.

Hong Kong Mile

The

had a prize money of HK$30 million in 2022. The race was first run in 1991 to mark the staging of the 22nd

Asian Racing Conference {{no footnotes, date=January 2014 The Asian Racing Federation (ARF) is a regional federation comprising 29 national horse racing authorities and racing-related organisations from across Asia, Oceania, Africa and the Middle East. The ARF is formally ...

and was run over 1400m. From 1999 it was renamed Hong Kong Mile and run over 1600m. It became the World's richest mile race in 2002.

Hong Kong Vase

The

was introduced in 1994. It is run over 2400m and had a purse of HK$22 million in 2022.

Hong Kong Sprint

The

was debuted in 1999 and was run over 1200m. In 2022 it had a HK$24 million purse, and it is one of the richest races in the world over 1200m or shorter.

Silent Witness ''Silent Witness'' is a British crime drama television series produced by the BBC, which focuses on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in 1996, the series was created by Nigel McC ...

became back to back winner of the Hong Kong Sprint in 2003 and 2004.

References

External links

{{commonscat, Hong Kong International Races
Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races
Horse racing in Hong Kong December sporting events