2002 Hong Kong International Races

Hong Kong International Races 2000 will be held in Sha Tin Racecourse. Sha Tin Racecourse, with its Penfold Park complex, is situated in the country park ambience of the New Territories. Opened in 1978 as a world-class racetrack, it hosts today several international status races and attracts star racing competitors from around the world.

The Sha Tin Track was opened in 1978. The turf track is 30 1/2 metres (100 ft) wide and has two home bends, with long bend course having a circumference of 1899 metres and the short bend course having a circumference of 1769 metres. The home straight for the long bend is 430m, while it's 365m long for the short bend. The turf track covers an area of 10.5 hectares. The track has a 1000 metre producing a straight 1000 course as well as a 1800 metre chute as an extension of the back straight. While both straights are flat, the back straight is 2.2m higher than the home straight, meaning that horses start climbing at the Stable Bend after passing the winning pass reaching the high point at 1,400m in the Back Straight. The track starts descending again from the 900m in the Back straight through the Home Bend and finally merges with the Home Straight. Races are run in clockwise direction. The track is a sand based Netlon reinforced system of 350mm in depth and has a Bermudagrass (Tifton 419) turf covering oversowed with Perennial Ryegrass during October to April each year. The Club will conduct during the 2000/01 racing season 47 racemeetings on the turf track at Sha Tin.

Long been the only racecourse in Hong Kong, this one hundred and fifty years old historic track received a major facelift back in the early 1990's. With the removal of the inner Equitrack (previously a sand track) and the completion of other major construction work around the headquarters area, the length of the track remains at 1400m long but the width of the course was expanded to 30m thus making this a safer track to race on.

Since then, Happy Valley generally offers a weekly Wednesday night meeting and occasionally race on Saturday, special holiday and inclusion of overseas (simulcasting) major races.

In the past years, Happy Valley also became the venue of the International Jockey Championship during the Hong Kong International Races week. This special Wednesday night meeting always attracts a huge crowd and many champion jockeys around the globe which gives the racing community a prelude to what is expected come Sunday, the International Races.