---Posh families turn to horses, golf and piano lessons

　　By Mark Godfrey

　　I never expected to ride a retired racehorse in Beijing on Saturdays. But in this city of unknown equestrian quantities I have found some of the best horse-riding training and facilities I've ever encountered, anywhere. Most of the instructors come from Inner Mongolia, home to most of China's horse culture. The horses meanwhile have been brought here from stables in Hong Kong and Australia. Many are retired racehorses, mild-mannered, gentle beasts who take students gently around the training pens.

　　Lessons aren't cheap by any standards but the quality of instruction is unquestionable. And unlike facilities I've used in Europe, horses here are cared for particularly well, in such a transparent way as that visitors can follow their mount into the stables and watch stable hands unsaddle each horse before a rub down and a shower freshen the steeds up for the next learner rider.

　　Equestrian clubs like Equuleus represent the upper end of the city's equestrian scene. The fact that such a fine facility can exist and prosper bodes well for the future of horse riding here. Saturdays and Sundays are booked-out busy days at the club, with a mixture of advanced riders and children practising their first trots and canters. A regular flow of foreign customers is assured from nearby luxury villa and apartment complexes.

　　According to the centre's manager, former magazine editor Wang Qiang, business is brisk. "We have learners from fifteen different countries coming here for lessons. We're also having competitions and some famous companies have chosen to have their events at the stables." Located in the eastern suburbs of Beijing on a 6 hectare estate close to the airport expressway, Equuleus has a large staff and is kitted out with its own bar.

　　Horse sport columns in China's city listings magazines are getting longer however. Most of Beijing's new equestrian clubs are a mere 30-minute drive away from the city's central business district. Prices vary but often compare poorly to those in many clubs in Europe and the United States. Horse riding is an expensive pastime in China's capital. Equuleus charges 270 yuan for lessons given in Chinese, with equipment provided. Fees are substantially higher for riders requiring an English-speaking instructor. The Beijing Green Equestrian Club on Jichang Fu Lu, Chaoyang District, charges 180 yuan per hour for use of its track and training. The Daoxianghu Riders' Riding Club inside Daoxianghu Park in Sujiatuo Village charges between 130 and 160 yuan an hour, while the Zhongxing Equestrian Sports Club north of the Xiaoqing river in Chaoyang district charges an hourly fee of 120 yuan but members pay a 1,000 yuan annual fee.

　　Beijing's first international equestrian event took place on September 19th and 20th last year at the Sunny Valley equestrian centre in Yanqing County, out by the Great Wall. Thirty six riders from Korea, Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines competed in the event which was overseen by the Asian Equestrian Federation. The event was as much an attempt at showing Beijing was up to hosting similar events at the 2008 Olympics, and officials from the Federation Equestre International (FEI) flew in from Geneva to assess organisational standards. Show jumping is still the preserve of a very select few fans in China's capital - 1,000 at a generous guess according to several Chinese riders I spoke with.

　　Many of the trainers currently working in Beijing's riding stables are natives of the Inner Mongolian autonomous region. It was fitting, perhaps, that as the Chinese region most associated with equestrian culture, Hohhot, the region's capital, staged China's first International Equestrian Invitational competition in 2001. The competition is the only one of its type recognised by the prestigious FEI.

　　Equestrian events and horse jumping are the specialities of Equuleus, but other horse businesses have been established in and around Beijing. Racing is where the big money is. During the racing season, races are held every Saturday at Beijing's Jockey Club, a 160 hectare track and stables facility in Tongzhou district, west of Beijing. Over 1,000 thoroughbreds are stabled on-site. Most have been flown in from Australia but there's also some sires here from Ireland, Britain and the US. Hong Kong racing tycoon Yung Pung Chung, has invested 65 million US dollars in the racecourse and stables. There are three tracks, the longest of which runs to two and a half kilometres. The course is currently warming up for its next season of racing, scheduled to begin in late March. Course managers are also signing off on the construction of a 50,000 capacity grandstand for spectators.

　　China, today a hothouse of free market capitalism, appears to be getting ready to rescind its 1949 ban on gambling. Racing industry experts worldwide predict an explosion of interest in horseracing and betting in China if the Communist Party's State Council or Politburo do lift the ban. A handful of far-thinking horseracing tycoons have already established themselves in China in anticipation of an opening of the gates. Irishman Kevin Connolly is Director of Racing and head trainer at the Beijing Jockey Club, the country's largest racecourse and stud farm. He leads a team of nearly 700, including six foreign trainers at the pioneering venture which opened less than three years ago in a Beijing suburb. Before moving to China Connolly ran the Australian racing interests of Yun Pung Cheng, a key figure in the famous Domeland Syndicate and the principal investor in the Beijing racing operation.

　　"It's probably the last frontier in horse racing in the whole world" says stocky, silver-haired Connolly. "The Chinese like to get involved with any sort of a lottery or betting, any game of chance. Betting isn't legal in China at the moment but maybe in years to come it will be. So we're taking a huge gamble in trying to get in first."

　　When I visited the Jockey Club late last summer, the grass was green, fed on water pumped in to keep the tracks and paddocks green during Beijing's dry, hot summer. Gambling by any other name happens at the track: race goers buy a voucher which corresponds with a particular horse. If that horse wins, they exchange the voucher for cash winnings. Gamblers drove, pedalled and walked to the course, which is half an hour's drive outside of Beijing. A group of old men in short sleeves studied the form book and argued before putting down 20 yuan (1.90 euros) each for "guessing" vouchers.

　　Chinese jockeys have replaced their foreign counterparts, who were initially brought in to train the locals. They're fast learners and hard workers, says Connolly. The slightly-built Chinese would appear to be well-suited to horse racing, and talented jockeys have come to Tongzhou not only from Inner Mongolia but also from Zhejiang province, also famed for its horse culture.

　　The racing season at the Beijing Jockey Club starts in March and runs to late September. Each weekend meeting fields an eight-race programme with 12 runners in each. Racing is only one part of Connolly's business, however. "This is a whole racing industry, from breeding to selling to racing," says Connolly. "We've gotten government permission to hold races, while other places may have overstepped the mark," he explains. Having tested the water, Connolly is confident of a bright future for Chinese racing. "We imagine there's a vast number of people who'll be interested in racing in Beijing" he says.

　　Connolly's Tongzhou racecourse is the biggest but there are a few more tracks in China, for example in the southern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan. A track in the northern coastal city of Dalian sits at the centre of a luxury resort that cost over 500 million US dollars to construct. Horseracing may be experiencing a tentative renaissance but it isn't new to China, by any means. Historians have documented horseracing from the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago right up to the Qing dynasty of the last century, but the sport was first developed as a commercial spectacle by foreigners in Shanghai from the mid 1900s. The track there drew huge crowds of expatriates and local Chinese. Foreign diplomats meanwhile brought racing to Beijing and Tianjin, where race meetings attracted huge crowds of gambling locals.

　　The Tongzhou track is easily up to European standards, and its most distinctive features are by white buildings and stalls topped by bright blue steel roofs. The colour code is continued in the paddocks and enclosures, where the railings are painted blue and net fencing is coloured white. Transport to the track needs to be improved but there are plans to build a railway link from Beijing.

　　Connolly plans to breed more of the racers at his stables in Tongzhou. The Huajun Stud attached to the course houses 24 stallions and nearly 500 mares last season. More horses are being shipped in, bought at bloodstock sales around the world. The Domeland Syndicate, the main investor in the track, flew 17 plane-loads of mares to China to get the venture established.

　　Connolly's pinned his hopes on becoming the grandfather of China's racing industry but it remains to be seen whether China's government legalises betting as he hopes. As Beijing prepares for the Olympics in 2008 city authorities are racing to provide comforts and attractions to impress western tourists drawn by the games. Horseracing is seen by some as both a tourist attraction and, through betting taxes, a lucrative source of income. Neighbouring Japan has a well-established and wealthy racing scene, while Hong Kong's jockey club is one of the most successful racing businesses in the world. Beijing's leaders haven't given any indication, however, if or when they'll legalise the sport. As is common in China, the size of the vast size of the government and its thousands of ancillary departments and organisations make it unclear who even has the right to decide whether horseracing and betting should be allowed or encouraged.

　　Other threats to Connolly's ambitions may come in the form of competition and copy cats. The Japanese-financed Beijing Longtou Farm opened recently in the outskirts of Beijing and is promoted by the China Horse Industry Association, an official body. China's swelling middle classes meanwhile are taking to equestrian sports as a status symbol and riding clubs have mushroomed in Chinese cities. National sports authorities are keen to help show jumpers compete in international competitions and bring honours home to China, a land obsessed with national pride and international approval. Conversely, extra government funding for equestrian sports and the rising prosperity of Chinese society could also make it easier for punters to be drawn to the Tongzhou track.

　　A lot more expertise and trained staff are needed if a substantial number of China's 1.3 billion people are to be attracted to horse sports. The 2008 Beijing Olympics have served as a stimulus to get standards up to spec and China's equestrian regulators are sending staff abroad to be trained. Staff at England's prestigious Hartpury College last year played host to eight officials from the Chinese Equestrian Association who came to learn how to organise and operate a three day event, the traditional format for serious equestrian competitions. As eventing is an Olympic sport, China needs to train a number of national officials in managing eventing for the Beijing Olympics. Although show-jumping and dressage competitions are gaining in popularity in China, eventing is virtually unknown, and China has yet to run its first competition.

　　The Chinese delegation to Hartpury was made up of a mixture of government officials from the Chinese Equestrian Federation and owners of major private equestrian centres. They shadowed Hartpury officials and organisers to gain first hand experience of event planning and management. "The visit was a great opportunity for Chinese officials to get hands-on experience at one star and two star competition levels and to help them set objectives for developing the sport within China, as well as preparing for the Olympics" said Hartpury College's Sarah Noble, a consultant to the Chinese Equestrian Association. Upon their return, the delegates set up a local eventing circuit and are now working towards running their first one star event in the 10th All China Games in 2005. Mr Cheng Qing, Deputy Secretary General of the Chinese Equestrian Association was delighted to learn how to organise a three day equestrian event. "Eventing is a new sport for China. We were extremely impressed by the professionalism and general helpfulness of the team brought together by Hartpury to run the competition. We had an extremely productive visit."

　　China had already sent seven stewards to Busan, Korea, for the Asian Games in 2002. "For a variety of reasons, China has never held any international equestrian event, so it is more than necessary for us to learn from others," said Sun Weibo, one of the stewards who travelled to learn how to organise an international equestrian tournament.

　　China's equestrian scene is evolving from a small base. It's unlikely to produce any of the champion riders, gold cups and fanatical followings that showjumping and horse racing draw in Europe, although horse racing will undoubtedly gallop forward if China's government allows a betting system like the ones in Western countries and in Hong Kong.

　　That said, equestrian skills such as showjumping and dressage are unlikely to ever reach levels of mass popularity. For that to happen horse riding will have to become a much more accessible and affordable pastime for the majority of China's children. Fine facilities like Equuleus will until then be welcome facilities for wealthy locals and expats like myself who enjoy a gallop on Beijing's open spaces on Saturday mornings.

　　Hong Kong will lead the way in the development of China's equestrian scene. This Special Administrative Region on China's southern coast, like neighbouring Macau, has built up a considerable bank of experience as well as a fine reputation for world class horse racing facilities.