The Chinese mainland will take its first step toward hosting a thoroughbred race overseas via closer cooperation with Singapore, thanks to an ambitious joint venture.
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Tianjin-based China Horse Club signed a memorandum of understanding on March 4 with the Singapore Turf Club, the island republic's only horse-racing club, to introduce the China Equine Culture Festival to Singapore in the second half of this year.
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The festival will also promote Chinese culture and traditions through art, dance, music and fashion and culminate in a world-class thoroughbred race day, which will be held at the Singapore club's racecourse. The organizer claims this is the first thoroughbred race from the Chinese mainland ever held overseas.
The first China Equine Cultural Festival was held in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The man behind that festival, Teo Ah Khing, a Malaysian architect who is also the chairman of the China Horse Club, claims that it has the highest bonus of any thoroughbred race on the Chinese mainland. The purse of a single race can be as high as 1 million CNY (163,600 USD).
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Statistics from the Singapore Tourism Board in February, indicated that about 15.5 million tourists from the Chinese mainland visitedÂ
Singapore in 2013, spending 2.38 billion Singaporean dollars (1.89 billion USD) in the first three quarters of that year, making China the No 1 overseas consumer in Singapore, surpassing Indonesia.Â
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The Chinese mainland will take its first step toward hosting a thoroughbred race overseas via closer cooperation with Singapore, thanks to an ambitious joint venture.
