stewards' room–everything built to a high
specification to mirror the facilities at Sha
Tin. Since there is no grandstand, tempo-
rary facilities will be rolled out for the Club
to host its first exhibition races March 23.
These exhibition races will incorporate ev-
ery aspect of Hong Kong racing apart from
betting, which is not allowed in mainland
China.
Although gambling on horse racing is
banned, the sport itself existed in China
long ago. Take the Shanghai Race Club
(SRC); it was established in 1862 and race
meetings were held in an area now known
as People's Square in Shanghai. In 1930s
and 40s, the SRC's activities were affected
during foreign invasions and civil war, and
the sport came to an official end in 1949
when the Communist Party shut it down. The
site of the racecourse and club buildings
have been subsequently replaced by oth-
er buildings. Over the years, various pro-
posals to get horse racing up and running
as a sport in Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and
Nanj i n g have floated but none has suc-
ceeded. Nowadays, there are ractracks
