Beijing Olympic Games

Equestrian struggling to gain foothold in Hong Kong

May 1, 12:30 am EDT

By James Pomfret

HONG KONG, May 1 (Reuters) - Hong Kong has one of Asia’s top horse racing cultures but its love for the animal has yet to translate to equestrian, with the city set to host Olympics show jumping events for the Beijing Games in August.

In a week when the Olympics torch was paraded through the city, authorities in the bustling financial hub have tried to whip up enthusiasm among regular citizens, few of whom opt for a career in sport given dim career prospects and parental pressure.

“It’s the first time in one hundred years that the Olympics has happened in Hong Kong so for Hong Kong people it has a strong symbolic meaning,” said Amy Chan, an Olympics bronze medallist at the 1988 Seoul Games for mixed doubles badminton, when it was a demonstration sport.

As one of only a handful of Hong Kongers to succeed as a world-class athlete, Chan has since forged a career with horses, running an apprentice jockey school for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, which raked in $8 billion in racing turnover last year.

She concedes that even with an Olympics publicity blitz, awareness of equestrian remains relatively low in Hong Kong, compared to horse racing, which draws tens of thousands to two massive race tracks twice weekly.

“A lot of people still aren’t aware of this (equestrian) because it’s very difficult to find a place in Hong Kong where you can do it,” Chan added.

“But I think for all sports in Hong Kong, even for badminton which seems quite popular, we had to work hard at it for a long time before breaking through.”

Despite this, Hong Kong’s three public riding schools have seen a 25 percent surge in applicants with long waiting lists, buoyed by the decision nearly two years ago to switch Olympics equestrian to the city given Beijing’s unknown equine health status and inability to establish a disease-free zone for horses.

RETIRED HORSES

“We’re not very big in numbers but we’re very big in enthusiasm,” vice president of the Hong Kong Equestrian Federation Edwin McAuley said, adding there were now some 480 members riding actively and around 1,500 riders in the schools.

“There is a synergy between horse racing and equestrian. After all, one of the big things about equestrian sports in Hong Kong is that it does provide a home for retired race horses.”

Despite a huge Olympics buzz in equestrian circles, some also fear the pre-Games momentum might slow, with an autumn series of international jumping shows having now been scrapped.

“It’s disappointing that these international horse shows were sort of a one-off thing last year when the idea was for it to be a long term progression,” said Jennifer Chang, a leading rider in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong Equestrian Federation said it hoped to revive the series in 2009 with Jockey Club backing.

And while the Jockey Club has pumped more than $150 million into building state-of-the-art, air-conditioned Olympic equestrian competition and training venues including a 20,000 seat arena, little will be kept after the games.

“It would be great if the Jockey Club could keep at least a small portion of the facilities out there,” Chang added.

Meanwhile for many in Hong Kong, a former British colony which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, there remains both a sense of Olympic pride and a disconnect toward equestrianism.

“Jumping horses aren’t that interesting to me. Not many people are going to watch it,” pork butcher Mr Lee said while wielding a meat cleaver in the Sun Hung stall in a wet market.

“If it were another sport like football, then 90 percent of people would go and watch but equestrian’s another thing altogether.” (Editing by John O’Brien) (“Countdown to Beijing Olympics” blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china)