The Hong Kong Jockey Club will host five international race meetings this season, up from the present two a year.
International race days are a big draw for the club, which invites dozens of the world's top thoroughbreds to race against local favourites for tens of millions in prize money. Major corporations are keen to act as sponsors to capitalise on the high-profile races.
This week's Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races, for example, was expected to attract more than 2,500 racing personnel including 280 from foreign media, with spending topping HK$20 million, said William Nader, the club's executive director of racing.
Until now the club has only had one other international racing day, the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup in late April, but this season's club calendar will allow foreign horses to race in Hong Kong at five meetings.
Two of the additional days were added last month when three previously domestic trial races became internationally recognised. The trial races, with total prize money of HK$3 million, were renamed the Cathay Pacific Jockey Club Cup, Mile and Sprint. Five-year-old champion Singapore sprinter Rocket Man was the only foreign horse participating last month.
The third extra day was added when the 1,600-metre Champions Mile event of the Audemars Piguet QE II Cup was spun off as a separate race during the same week, mainly because German carmaker BMW wanted to sponsor its own international race, Nader said.
The QE II Cup is usually held on the last Sunday in April while the new Champions Mile is scheduled for May 1. However, the two race dates will be switched this season only because Easter falls on the last Sunday of April. This means the Champions Mile will take place on Easter Monday followed by the QE II Cup on May 1. The schedule will then resume as normal as Easter does not fall on the last Sunday of April for the next 30-odd years, Nader said.
'The only thing left for us to consider in expansion - and it's not something that we would do in the near term but something we could look at on the horizon - would be an international sprint race in April, possibly. But right now, there's no plan to do that,' Nader said.
The new racing calendar is complemented by the decision to move December's annual sale of young thoroughbreds to March.
Big draw
Spending is expected to hit this much, in Hong Kong dollars, for the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Races: $20m