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Breakdown of gallopers just about to start the 2020/21 HKJC season that gets underway at Sha Tin this coming Sunday.

The importance of the Australian-bred thoroughbred to Hong Kong racing, and conversely Hong Kong racing to the domestic bloodstock industry, is probably best reflected in the breakdown of gallopers just about to start the 2020/21 HKJC season that gets underway at Sha Tin this coming Sunday.

Of the 1324 horses listed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club on the organisation's very informative website on the eve of the impending racing year, no fewer than 665 carry an (AUS) suffix - or fractionally over half the total in layman's terms.

Also providing some indication of the regard Hong Kong owners have for New Zealand-bred stock is the fact that no fewer than 345 (26%) of the 1324 total have been sourced from the breeding industry across The Ditch.

In comparison to the ANZAC contingent which amounts to over three-quarters of Hong Kong's racehorse population, only 11 percent (147) are Irish-bred, less than six percent British-bred, and marginally over two percent French-bred.

According to the same pre-seasonal report, the most popular stallion represented in Hong Kong at this present time is Exceed And Excel - and deservedly so. 

One of a very small number of stallions proven in both hemispheres, Exceed And Excel is sire of 33 horses on the HKJC register, more than two-thirds of those being the Australian-bred model as opposed to the one produced during the Darley stallion's reverse shuttle seasons located in Ireland.

Only Excel And Excel has 30-plus members of his offspring ready for action in Hong Kong, and only a small selection of stallions have more than 20 individual runners on the HKJC's 'books'. 

Maybe surprisingly, amongst these are Smart Missile and the New Zealand-based Per Incanto, each of which boasts a very healthy contingent of 27 individual representatives lining-up to race at Happy Valley and Sha Tin this coming season.

Of the younger division of stallions still establishing themselves in Hong Kong, Deep Field has as many as 18 members of his first few crops to race in readiness for the new season.

Interestingly, still to be re-named after making their high-profile switch to Hong Kong are the likes of last season's Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes winner Shadow Hero (currently known as E056), 2020 Australian Derby minor placegetter Eric The Eel (E054), and the Melbourne 2-year-old debut stakes winner Ilovemyself (E135) now stationed in the Asian racing Hub after just two juvenile starts.

Now named and presumably on track to make their first appearance in public are highly-priced yearling sale purchases such as Immense Hedge (Snitzel-Go Indy Go), All You Want (Fastnet Rock-Satin Robes) and Gallant Express (I Am Invincible-Dance With Her), a trio of unraced youngsters that fetched $700,000, $540,000 and $480,000 respectively.