December 7, 1998. Copyright, 1998, Graphic News. All rights reserved

HOW A MOUNTAIN BECAME A RACECOURSE By Midge Todhunter

LONDON, December 7, Graphic News:  SHA TIN, the host racecourse for the Hong
Kong International Races held each December, is the result of a unique
problem the Hong Kong Jockey Club was faced with back in 1973. With
horseracing rapidly emerging as the nearest thing in Hong Kong to a ÔnationalÕ
sport, their only racecourse at Happy Valley, surrounded as it is by tower
blocks Ð of which a couple were used as stable blocks, with their roofs as
exercise yards Ð was bursting at the seams.

Clearly the colony needed a new racetrack. But on the tiny, 29 square-mile,
ant heap-like island, there was hardly room to swing a cat, let alone space to
build a racecourse. So they decided to move one of the mountainsÉ into the
sea!

Over the next five years, 13,995,071 cubic yards of hillside were shifted (at
the rate of one lorry-load per eight seconds) across the territory to reclaim
250 acres of Sha Tin Bay in the New Territories, thus creating a million
square feet on which to put their new amenity. And the 161 acres of building
land finally left where the mountain once stood had a market value far
exceeding the £60 million cost of the whole project. The genius is in its
simplicity.

Constructed on land entirely reclaimed form nature, Sha Tin, with its
computerised betting and air-conditioned stables, is said to be one of the
finest racing centres in the world. Every modern update has been added since
its inception, including the first Digital Colour Photo Finish in November
1997, and a new turf training gallop alongside the picturesque Shing Mun
River.

The Club says it aims to continue to improve and expand racing, so as to
contribute to the welfare of the people of Hong Kong, and to encourage the
overall development of the sport worldwide. /ENDS

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