{"id":8770,"date":"2017-09-04T19:46:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T09:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/?p=8770"},"modified":"2017-09-04T19:46:35","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T09:46:35","slug":"striking-progress-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/?p=8770","title":{"rendered":"Striking Progress In China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Story sourced from Aushorse 04 Sep 2017<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Striking Eagle pictured with connections<\/p><\/div>\n

While much of the action centred around Caulfield (first Group One of the season) and Royal Randwick (Winx!) on Saturday, the running of the Inglis China-Australia Cup at Yulong racecourse in Shanxi province was also big news: to Chinese and Australians alike.<\/p>\n

Attracting a full field of 14 runners \u2013 all sourced from Inglis sales and including runners by Redoute\u2019s Choice, Snitzel, Exceed And Excel, Medaglia d\u2019Oro and co. \u2013 the China-Australia Cup is, at A$200,000, the richest race in mainland China and an ideal barometer as to the rapid growth of racing in the region.<\/p>\n

Racing was banned in China in 1949, but its \u2018return\u2019 has been much anticipated for the past couple of decades \u2026 always considered to be something of a sleeping giant.<\/p>\n

However, while it took a while to go from an easy canter to full blown gallop, the Chinese industry now appears ready to explode and the steady influx of Australian-bred horses was in full evidence on Saturday.<\/p>\n

So too were the number of Aussie faces in the crowd, including Aushorse Chairman and Widden Stud principal, Antony Thompson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was here last year for the inaugural running of the Inglis China-Australia Cup and the difference in just 12 months is simply stunning,\u201d Thompson enthused. \u201cMr Zhang, who built and owns Yulong racecourse and has substantial racing and breeding interests in both China and Australia, is clearly passionate about building interest in the sport in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are six races per program at Yulong over an eight week period with a minimum $10,000 per race, including races for local breds, open races, bonus races etcetera, and then obviously building to races like the $200,000 Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for the facilities, they are all first class with, for instance, a 500 horse, state-of-the-art stable added in the last 12 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Zhang has been very inclusive and a lot of Australian professionals have been in China for the last few weeks to mix with the local trainers, jockeys and other personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI must say, the standard of racing is very encouraging too: horses, trainers and jockeys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actual Cup was a terrific event with the race being won by a Purrealist 3YO called Striking Eagle, who is trained by ex-pat Aussie, Brian Lawrence.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former high school teacher and hobby trotting trainer in Western NSW, Lawrence trained in China from 2003 to 2005 and returned in March of this year where he has around 16 in work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a huge difference in the last 12 years,\u201d Lawrence explains. \u201cIn particular, the standard of horses. There are 16 barns here at Yulong and all of them are full, with Mr Zhang himself having over 100 in training.<\/p>\n

\u201cAside from the quality of bloodstock, the skills of trainers, jockeys and other racecourse staff has improved out of sight as well. I\u2019d imagine that half the trainers here are ex-jockeys that have come up through the ranks.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s really going ahead in leaps and bounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

James O\u2019Brien of Lauriston Thoroughbreds was also chuffed at the result given that he sold Striking Eagle to the Beijing Racing Stables at last year\u2019s Inglis Ready2Race for $55,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of four we sold to Beijing Racing Stables from that draft,\u201d O\u2019Brien explains. \u201cStriking Eagle is by Purrealist from Shaolin Belle \u2026 he\u2019s closely related to Apache Cat and like Apache Cat, he has a big, white blaze too.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s now won four from four in China and is best 3YO up there. I\u2019m very happy for his new owners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Mr Zhang is ecstatic at the progress of racing in China and Australia\u2019s involvement: \u201cThe Inglis China-Australia Cup has been a positive factor toward the development of racing in China, and a great drawcard for the importing of Australian-bred horse by Chinese owners,\u201d Mr Zhang points out. \u201cThe Australian-bred horse population in China has increased significantly over the past few years and this has seen the quality of horses racing in China greatly improve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story sourced from Aushorse 04 Sep 2017 While much of the action centred around Caulfield (first Group One of the season) and Royal Randwick (Winx!) on Saturday, the running of the Inglis China-Australia Cup at Yulong racecourse in Shanxi province … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8770"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8770"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8775,"href":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8770\/revisions\/8775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lauristonfarm.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}