Guangzhou, August 28 (Xu Qingqing Wu Shanji) On the 28th, four horse transport vehicles bearing the "Hong Kong Jockey Club" logo lined up and slowly drove into the Hong Kong Jockey Club Conghua Racecourse (hereinafter referred to as "Conghua Racecourse") on the banks of the Liuxi River on the outskirts of Guangzhou, and stopped at the customs supervision and inspection platform in the venue. The Guangzhou Customs inspectors waiting by immediately carried out the inspection work. It is reported that since the normalization of cross-border horse racing transportation between Guangdong and Hong Kong in August 2018, Guangzhou Customs has supervised more than 23,000 horse races to travel safely and smoothly between Guangdong and Hong Kong.
Guangzhou customs officers conduct on-site inspections of incoming horses. Photo by Wu Shanji
According to reports, Conghua Horse Farm is located in Conghua District, Guangzhou, the first internationally recognized equine animal disease area in the mainland. The horse farm is currently the largest, highest standard and most complete thoroughbred horse breeding and training center in the mainland, covering an area of more than 150 hectares, with 4 running tracks, 9 stables, horse hospitals, horse pools and other facilities, which can accommodate 660 racing horses for training at the same time. Horses trained at Conghua Racecourse can be raced in real time when transported back to Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Jockey Club Conghua Racecourse. Photo by Wu Shanji
In response to the need for frequent travel between Guangdong and Hong Kong for horse racing, Guangzhou Customs has implemented a "one-time approval, multiple round-trip" approval system for horse racing, whereby horses that have obtained entry permits can travel to and from the racecourses in Guangdong and Hong Kong several times within one year, realizing "free travel". At the same time, in cooperation with the Hong Kong Jockey Club and other relevant units, the cross-border customs clearance and quarantine supervision system for horse racing in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been developed and launched, tracking the whole process of horse transportation online in real time, further strengthening the monitoring of horse health, on-site inspection, customs clearance status, etc., so as to realize the information sharing and disposal of the management departments of Guangdong and Hong Kong.
Horse racing is irritable, and a slight carelessness in the process of long-distance transportation may cause a stress reaction, and the traditional domestic and foreign quarantine and batch sampling testing modes are difficult to meet the needs of the project. Guangzhou Customs has strengthened cooperation with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government to jointly formulate and implement the Guangdong-Hong Kong Round-trip Horse Disease Surveillance Plan, so as to achieve unified monitoring projects, unified monitoring methods, mutual recognition of monitoring results, and long-term tracking of the health of Hong Kong horse races, with a total of more than 7,000 horse diseases monitored in the past five years.
Hong Kong horse racing at Conghua Racecourse. Photo by Wu Shanji
It is understood that since the operation of Conghua Racecourse, a large number of Hong Kong racehorses have been successively transported to Conghua Racecourse for training, and the weekly transportation frequency of "two in and two out" between Guangdong and Hong Kong, about 80 batches of horses are imported and exported every month, and more than 400 horses are stationed in race. Since 28 August this year, the frequency of transportation between Guangdong and Hong Kong in Hong Kong has been increased to "three in and three out" every week. (End)