After the track, Hong Kong's champion horses retire in luxury around the world
HKJC is 'gold standard' and envied globally when it comes to rehab and rehoming horses
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 17 May, 2015, 2:38am
UPDATED : Sunday, 17 May, 2015, 2:38am
Kylie Knott [email protected]
Archie da Silva's horse Silent Witness retired to Australia.
While champion horse Viva Pataca is spending his retirement in Macau, for other Hong Kong's champion racehorses retirement comes at an affordable price and is available at greener pastures at equine farms around the world.
Archie da Silva, owner of champion Silent Witness - one of the city's most esteemed horses, a winner of his first 17 starts, a two-time Horse of the Year and the best sprinter in the world at the peak of his career - sent his horse to Living Legends in Australia in 2007, becoming one of the first horses retired to the farm.
"The process to get a horse to one of these farms takes some time but it must be done. Living Legends is for champions and I'm very happy that Silent Witness went there and I'm very pleased with the conditions my horse now lives in. He deserves only the best," da Silva said.
And he's not the only one. Triple Hong Kong Mile winner Good Ba Ba has retired to Living Legends in Melbourne, while two-time Champions Mile winner Xtension was retired last year to Rathbarry Stud in County Cork, Ireland.
Akeed Mofeed, the 2013 Hong Kong Cup and Hong Kong Derby winner, now stands at owner Pan Sutong's Goldin Farms stud farm in South Australia.
Fairy King Prawn, two-time Horse of the Year and one of Hong Kong's most popular horses, now resides at Ascot Farm in New Zealand.
Viva Pataca's great rival Vengeance Of Rain was retired to Cambridge Farm in New Zealand, where he died in October 2011, while Hong Kong Mile winner Beauty Flash was returned to original trainer Lance Noble in New Zealand where he has been retrained as an event horse.
Sacred Kingdom, a two-time winner of the Hong Kong Sprint, now lives at the property of his original breeder in rural Victoria.
Chris Riggs, chief veterinarian at the Hong Kong Jockey Club said the club was committed to looking after horses in retirement. "Horses that owners no longer want, the club can take … if the horse's health is up to it, it can go through retraining and rehabilitation programmes and find a new home," he said.
Bill Nader, the jockey club's executive director of racing, said the HKJC was the "gold standard" in horse retirement plans, its system "envied and emulated" by racing organisations globally.
He said owners of horses registered with the HKJC were fully aware of, and briefed about, the options available to a horse when the animal retired.