Racehorses get prime treatment in crossing border

Guangzhou Customs has supervised more than 23,000 horse visits between Guangdong and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since the normalization of cross-border horse transportation between the two sides in August 2018.

Customs' innovative management and continuous optimization of cross-border transportation supervision models for horses have ensured the animals' safe and smooth transportation between Guangdong and Hong Kong over the previous five years. It is playing an important role in helping to build a world-class race track in Guanzhou's Conghua district, Customs officials said.

According to Zhang Zhenya, director of the Conghua race course customs office, horses can enjoy multiple round-trips after they have once been reviewed and approved. They can enter and exit the province multiple times without inspection and quarantine within their validity period.

"Starting Monday, three batches of horses were transported across the border to arrive at Conghua racecourse from Hong Kong. Another three batches leave the racecourse for Hong Kong every week to meet the growing demand, as Hong Kong's new horse racing season will begin in early September," Zhang said.

Previously two batches of horses entered and two exited weekly, he said.

The Conghua racecourse provides an ideal destination at which race horses from Hong Kong can relax, recover, train and improve their race readiness, he said.

Lei Jianhai, deputy director of Conghua Customs, said departments would continue to deepen cooperation with their Hong Kong counterparts to fully promote convenient customs clearances and the supervision of horses to help construct key projects, including the second phase of Conghua race course, Conghua international racing development center and an international horse trading platform, to better serve the construction of a high-level and world-class horse industry economy in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Horse racing is one of the key development industries in the GBA, and Conghua is one of the key development projects.

The Conghua track celebrates its 5th anniversary on Monday. It is the largest-scale, highest-standard and most complete thoroughbred horse breeding and training center on the Chinese mainland. Covering more than 150 hectares, the facility has four race tracks, nine stables, an advanced horse hospital, a horse swimming pool and related facilities.

The facility, which can simultaneously accommodate up to 660 horses, has about 400 horses all year.

Nicole Fan, Deputy Executive Manager for Mainland Affairs for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said that horses trained at Conghua can immediately enter a race after they are transported back to Hong Kong.

"Training at Conghua can help the horses become fitter in the races," she said.

According to Fan, Conghua Racecourse expected to host regular world-class racing event starting 2026.

"A grandstand capable of accommodating 9,500 spectators is expected to be completed before the end of 2025," she said.

Hong Kong's Sha Tin Racecourse can accommodate about 80,000 spectators while the Happy Valley Racecourse has a capacity of 35,000.