Hong Kong
International Races
8 December 2024

History Of The Race

The Hong Kong International Races is a highlight of the international horse racing calendar. Known as the Turf World Championships, the second Sunday in December is the world’s year-end Group 1 extravaganza, the final confluence of elite international talent channelled into four great races.

It was on 24 January 1988, that the Hong Kong International Races came into being. That pioneering race day was a long way removed from the epic programme we know today, but it was an important first step towards Hong Kong becoming a renowned venue for world class horse racing. Back in 1988 the one international race on the card, the first ever staged in Hong Kong, was the Hong Kong Invitation Cup, open to overseas entries from Malaysia and Singapore. The event was soon opened to all and since then the number of countries and regions that have sent horses to contest the international races in Hong Kong has increased to include Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.

That one race - the fore-runner to the event’s main feature, the Hong Kong Cup - has become four. And some of these races are now ranked as being among the very best races in the world. In the IFHA’s (International Federation of Horseracing Authorities) latest year-end list of the 2022 World’s Top 100 G1 Races, the Hong Kong Mile was ranked 23rd and the Hong Kong Cup 51st.

Great horses have triumphed. Asian heavyweights Silent Witness, Sacred Kingdom, Beauty Generation, Golden Sixty, Ambitious Dragon, Able Friend, Good Ba Ba, Lord Kanaloa, Eishin Preston, Maurice and A Shin Hikari have made their marks internationally with victories at the HKIR, as have Australasian competitors, such as the brilliant mare Sunline; European superstars like Snow Fairy, Ouija Board, Falbrav, Fantastic Light, Alexander Goldrun, Red Cadeaux, Ramonti and Highland Reel have all enhanced their reputations. Today, more than three decades on from that first invitation race, the Hong Kong International Races stands as one of the world’s truly elite horse racing occasions.