Railbird 2004–2019

International Archive

World Drawn to Sha Tin

“For all that has been written about this seething territory, what particularly strikes the visitor is the way extremes can sit side by side in comfort. It is a curious thing. The coming together of China and the former colony’s capitalist culture is but one endorsement of the concept that opposites attract.
“Another is Sha Tin racetrack, where 37 foreign-trained horses will join the locals in disputing more than $7 million (£3.65 million) on Sunday. Sha Tin is a fusion of the man-made and the natural. It is where towering apartment blocks compete with mountainous terrain to enclose the site in a cylinder of rock. And if that image isn’t sufficiently incongruous, you can see Alec Wildenstein, the enfant terrible of French racing, disembark at Sha Tin from a coach overladen with journalists.
“It is within such a framework that Hong Kong’s International raceday has evolved. Once the graveyard for slow horses from Europe, Hong Kong fully merits its baptism as the new-born babe of global racing. There is no doubt that its all-expenses-paid policy has attracted foreign horses beyond their station. Equally, it has contrived a beguiling sequence of four races, none of which will be easily won. And the ten-furlong Cup bequeaths a race to which any nation would aspire.” (Times)
More: “The routine is rarity in Hong Kong” (MSNBC)

Posted in International on December 10, 2004

More Arrests Made

Three more arrests have been made in the ongoing British race-fixing inquiry. Trainer Alan Berry, jockey Paul Bradley, and blacksmith Steve O’Sullivan were detained Wednesday on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud. The men join 22 others who have been charged in the investigation, including top jockey Kieren Fallon. [Props to Louis, Man of Kendal, for the link.] (BBC)

Posted in International on December 1, 2004

Good for Ireland

“Ireland’s racecourses are to become among the finest in Europe with a massive €200m cash boost, it emerged today. Minister for Sport John O’Donoghue said the huge five-year funding deal would modernise facilities for punters and match the commitment millions of race-goers had shown to the sport.” (Ireland On-Line)

Posted in International on November 22, 2004

Did He Know?

And could he have stopped it? Those are the questions being asked of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum of Dubai, a leading Thoroughbred owner, who has been placed “at the center of a longstanding international human rights controversy: the trafficking of impoverished children as young as 3 to the United Arab Emirates, where they are forced into slavery as camel jockeys.” Denials abound, but are met with skepticism by international human rights groups, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Posted in International on November 7, 2004

Child Enslavement Alleged

“Sheik Mohammed, one of the richest horse buyers in Kentucky and the world, has been implicated in the slave trade of child camel jockeys by a cable TV news program. A report aired this week on HBO’s Real Sports includes footage of appalling living conditions at camel-training camps and alleges that boy camel jockeys — some as young as 3 — are kidnapped or sold into slavery, starved, beaten and raped. The report links the abuses to Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.” (Lexington Herald-Leader)

Posted in International on October 23, 2004