The Hong Kong Jockey Club will host the first race meeting at its new mainland China training and racing facility in mainland China’s Guangdong Province on 31 October 2026, with “five or six” races planned according to CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges.
Racing industry news network Idol Horse confirmed the opening date of the Conghua Racecourse, which is expected to host regular meetings pending release of China’s new five-year National Equine Industry Plan early next year.
Located at the former equestrian facility of the 2010 Asian Games, Conghua Racecourse is described as a “world-class” training, stabling and racing facility for thoroughbred horses, with infrastructure for stables, training tracks, quarantine and spectator stands.
It is seen as a vital addition to The HKJC’s facilities given space restraints in Hong Kong.
As reported by Idol Horse, the opening race meet had been planned for April 2026 but was delayed to allow additional time for construction to be fully completed.
“The whole National Equine Industry Development Plan was from 2020 to 2025, so we expect there will be a new plan in March 2026,” Engelbrecht-Bresges said. “That will outline the next five years and give us more information on policy direction.
“We’ll also determine how many meetings there will be [at Conghua] when we look at the horse population and everything else sometime next year.”
The HKJC CEO added that the initial race meet next October would likely have only a handful of invited guests with the second meeting, scheduled for the end of November, to be the first real launch for the general public.
“It will be the launch of world-class racing in mainland China,” he explained.
Conghua Racecourse covers around 150 hectares of land, making it twice as big as Hong Kong’s Sha Tin, with The HKJC revealing that it was used by 37% of its runners last season.
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