Hong Kong takes aim at better quality Australian horses

The market for proven and emerging horses from Australasia suitable for Hong Kong could be recharged after a multi-million dollar Hong Kong Jockey Club incentive aimed at boosting the quality of its racing population.

Agents working the Hong Kong scene have suggested that the top-end of the market has become increasingly difficult, with their chosen targets have been out of reach, leaving their clients seek alternative options to fill their permits

However, under a new scheme announced by the Jockey Club, owners could be willing to increase their budgets for quality horses capable of mixing it in Hong Kong’s Classic races for four-year-olds.

Hong Kong-based Australian agent Justin Bahen, who will fly to Sydney for the Inglis Easter sale after Sunday’s Hong Kong Derby meeting, welcomed the Jockey Club’s latest initiative.

He believes it could also be the catalyst for greater investment from Hong Kong owners in high-level, proven horses and help the Jockey Club achieve its aim of increasing the quality of the horse population.

“I think if you explain it in full to an owner and you get the full attention of that owner with a view that we want to secure this horse at this price, if we get it right you could very much have your purchase price nearly paid for, or a good portion of it paid for, in your first season of racing (in Hong Kong),” Bahen said.

The new Premier Series bonus payments – HK$500,000 (first place), HK$300,000 (second) and HK$200,000 (third) per race – are in addition to existing private purchase bonus payments.

Those payments reward owners of eligible horses with bonuses of HK$1.5 million for their first win in Class 3 and a further HK$1.5 million for their first win in Class 2 or above.

The Premier Series payments boost the maximum possible bonus amount for PPs to HK$4 million.

They apply to races at 1400 metres and above for four-year-olds through to April 30 of that season.

After the announcement by the Jockey Club, Australian agent Peter Twomey revealed his Hong Kong clients had immediately expressed an interest in targeting horses who would be eligible for the Premier Series bonuses. 

“There doesn’t seem to be many of those horses going into Hong Kong at the moment,” Twomey said.

“Maybe there’s a few colts and fillies that are dominating three-year-old races at the moment, and the ones that myself and clients have identified that we thought would be suitable haven’t been able to be purchased.

“And it looks as though they’re the ones that the Jockey Club wants, the ones that are going to race in Class 3 level and above.”

Bahen agreed with Twomey that identifying suitable high-class horses for Hong Kong is one thing, while being able to negotiate suitable terms with connections is another.

“To acquire high quality racing stock -, your privately purchased horses that are above (rating) 70 – is a very, very difficult space to be securing horses anywhere in the world,” Bahen said. 

“If they’re not owned by the Godolphins and Yulongs, those who are genuinely not sellers of their horses, then we get the second tier of that in Australia, where we’ve got small ownership groups that don’t need to trade or don’t want to trade. 

“They say, ‘fantastic, we’ve finally found a nice horse, and there’s 35 of us in it, we’re having a great time, and your money doesn’t really equate to much when we split it amongst 35 people, thanks for the offer, but we’ll decline’.”

Conceivably three-year-olds in races such as Saturday’s Rosehill Guineas, away from the favourites and stallion prospects Observer and Autumn Boy, will attract interest from Hong Kong with the new incentive making higher-priced horses, in the $500,000-plus to seven-figure range, more attractive.

Four Hong Kong Derby runners – Numbers, Sagacious Life, Seraph Gabriel and Pope Cody – would have met the Premier Series criteria if it was in place for this season.

Numbers, who raced for John O’Shea and Tom Charlton when called King Of Thunder, ran in the Victoria Derby, Australian Derby and Queensland Derby last season before being sold to a syndicate of trainer Frankie Lor’s owners.

Pope Cody won three of his five starts in South East Queensland for Toowoomba trainer Cameron Richardson before being sold to Hong Kong interests in the spring of 2024.

Twomey cited Pope Cody, a Showtime gelding, as an example of where the Hong Kong owner would have benefited significantly had the Premier Series bonus been in place.

Based on his form as a Class 3 winner who has also been placed multiple times at Class 3 level his prize money surged to about HK$5.3 million.

“For a horse like him, who is not a world beater, there’s certainly an incentive to try and buy that type of horse who looks like he is going to sneak into the Derby,” Twomey said.

Bahen indicated that the Australasian market was well informed about what horses are worth when they take calls from agents acting for Hong Kong owners.

“If I ring up to buy a horse, the other end (of the line) has a fair indication of price guide now. They say, ‘oh, my mate sold his horse for that much and mine’s a bit better than that horse. He said he got that much for his horse’,” he said. 

The changing market dynamics means Hong Kong buyers were forced to look farther afield or for horses whose ability is less proven.

“They say, ‘oh, my mate sold his horse for that much and mine’s a bit better than that horse. He said he got that much for his horse’,” – Justin Bahen

The last Australian flight which landed in Hong Kong on February 25 had 13 private-purchased horses on it, the majority were maiden winners with a rating below 70. 

“I don’t think asking prices have come down too much in the last 18 months, or certainly the last six months (for the highly rated raced horses in Australia). But the appetite to buy them I feel has decreased a little bit,” Twomey said.

“It felt like 12 months ago, at this time of year, I’d have to be scrambling to ring people, and watching races and calling them, and I feel like there’s been cases in the last few weeks where I’ve called people about a horse and I’m the first person to ask on a Monday. 

“It might be anecdotal, it might be my little experience, but I just don’t seem to be … as many active participants as there may have been.  

“It’s just very interesting to look at the last couple of shipments of PPs and there’s a lot of country and provincial maiden winners and not a lot of metro level horses going up.”

Flying the flag for Twomey’s Wattle Bloodstock in Hong Kong this season is Infinite Resolve, a four-year-old Snitzel gelding out of a half-sister to Yes Yes Yes who was exported to Hong Kong as a maiden winner and multiple city placegetter.

A winner in Hong Kong and runner-up in the Hong Kong Classic Mile two starts ago, Infinite Resolve can measure up to the top level in that region as a sprinter-miler.

“He’s run well and he looks like he’ll be a handy sort of 1400 to 1600-metre horse with Mark Newnham,” Twomey said. 

“He’s gone from sort of a rating 70 to rating 89 pretty quickly in his four-year-old season, so more of that quality horse is ideal for what they are wanting.”

The Jockey Club’s executive director of racing Andrew Harding said the organisation was “firmly committed to continuously enhancing the ownership proposition and improving the quality of our world-class horse population”. 

“We feel this initiative builds on the successful PP bonus by adding a further level of recognition for these owners who make the outlay to secure high-rated imports,” Harding said in the club media release. 

“We recognise that the market for these horses is ultra-competitive and the Premier Series bonus is a means by which the club can assist owners sourcing horses in this market.”

The Jockey Club has opened the ballot for 460 horse permits for this year made up of 120 private purchase permits and 340 private purchase griffin permits for unraced horses.

Last year’s ballot received 792 applications, up on the 699 applications in 2024, 747 in 2023, 759 in 2022 and 890 in 2021.

There were 1100 in 2019, the year before the pandemic.