Shanghai Race Club
The Shanghai Race Club was a
Romanization
Facilities
From 1862, the Shanghai Race Club was based at the race track it owned in the centre of Shanghai. The grounds later became People's Park and the adjacent People's Square in central Shanghai - which (taken together) are even today still in the shape of the original track. This racetrack, opened in 1862, was the third racecourse owned by the Shanghai Race Club. The turf was described as "smooth as a billiard table".
The Race Club building, which survives to this day, was built in 1934 on the western side of the race track. Its imposing, 10-storey tall tower was long a landmark of central Shanghai. It included a 100-metre (330 ft) long grand stand, with three to five levels. The 1934 building has been described thus:
The grandstand was thought at the time to be the largest in the world, and probably was, while the Race Club, with its marble staircases, teak-panelled rooms, oak parquet floors, and its coffee room which was 100ft by 47ft[a] with a huge fireplace, most certainly ranked as the most sumptuous club of its kind yet built in any country.[1]
The clubhouse's exterior has a neo-classical structure, with eclectic details. A loggia which ran along the second floor of the building was used as the members' stand. The ground floor was the box office and betting hall. A mezzanine level between the ground and first floor contained bowling lanes. The first floor contained club facilities, including a cafe, games room, billiard room and reading room. The second floor contained rooms for members and the restaurant.
History
The Race Committee of the International Recreation Club (also called the Shanghai Recreation Fund) organised its first race meet in 1848. In 1850, five founding directors (W. Hogg, T.D. Gibb, Langley, W. W. Pakin and E. Webb) obtained a permanent lease over land at the corner of Honan Road and Nanking Road and built the first racecourse (known as the "Old Park"). The Race Club was formed the same year, and the first race meet was held the next year.[2]
By 1861, the Race Club had 25 members. In 1854, the Old Park was sold at a profit, and the racecourse was enlarged and moved west to the intersection of Chekiang Road and Nanking Road (known as the "New Park"). The influx of refugees fleeing the
The Race Club prospered from the influx of migrants into Shanghai in the early 20th century and the sale of hugely popular raffle tickets from 1908. By 1938, it had purchased all of the assets of its former parent, the Shanghai Recreation Club (which had lost its major source of revenue when the Kiang-wan Racecourse was ransacked by invading Japanese troops), including the sport field surrounded by the racecourse.
The club's activities were affected by the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. Upon the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, Japanese forces occupied the Race Club, but racing resumed in December, 1941 and continued regularly until August 1945. The facilities were briefly used by US forces at the end of the war in 1945. However, due to public outcry about this vestige of colonialism in central Shanghai and the reputation of the racecourse as a gambling den, the government did not permit race meetings to be resumed. From 1946, the Republic of China government began negotiations with the Race Club to resume the racecourse. In 1947, in the midst of negotiations with the government over acquisition of the racecourse, the Club incorporated as three companies, registered in Hong Kong, which respectively held various parts of the club's buildings and facilities; the Recreation Club was also nominally maintained, holding the sports ground surrounded by the race track. Negotiations to exchange the racecourse for a larger plot of suburban land to build a new racecourse never concluded due to the intervention of the Civil War.[2]
After the
On 31 May 1954, the government took over all of the club's buildings. The club house became, first, the
Membership
At first, membership of the Race Club was restricted to foreign (non-Chinese) residents over the age of 21. A membership committee of 9 to 11 people would vote on each application. A unanimous approval is required for the application to succeed. If there is one disapproval vote, the application is held over until the next meeting. If there are two disapproval votes, the candidate is required to re-apply after a certain time period. If there are three disapproval votes, then the application fails and the candidate is not permitted to re-apply. It was not until 1908 that select Chinese nationals were permitted to join as honorary members, associate members or social members. By 1908, the Race Club had 320 full members and 500 other members. Monthly fees were 10
Racedays and gambling
Between 1863 and 1919, there were two meetings each year: the Spring race days occurred in late April and early May, and the Autumn race days were in late October and early November. Each meeting was for four days. The two race meetings were described as "The Grand Festivals of Shanghai". From 1920 onwards, further preliminary race days were added, and there were occasional additional races on weekends and holidays.
Betting was always a feature of the Shanghai Racecourse. Prior to 1909, this primarily occurred via bookmakers who set up stalls at the course. After 1909, the sale of raffle tickets were introduced, and quickly outstripped betting on horses as the primary source of revenue for the Shanghai Race Club. Horse racing-themed raffle tickets issued by the Race Club were sold across China. Purely a game of chance and not requiring any knowledge of racing, the raffles were very accessible and proved extremely popular with Chinese residents, and also attracted criticism of the Race Club from social commentators for running essentially a pure gambling scheme.[2]
Trophies and cups
In the 1860s the most notable trophy was the Champions Stakes, a forced entry race for all winners during the fall and spring race meeting. In 1884 it was renamed the Mafoo and Champions' race. In 1927, it was renamed the Shaforce Challenge Cup and Champions' Stakes.
Champions Day—the day of the Champions' Stakes—was a holiday in Shanghai's International Settlement and drew crowds in excess of 20,000 spectators. The November 12, 1941 Champions Day was the last one under the direction of the British directors of the Shanghai Race Club, just three weeks before the Japanese army occupied the International Settlement. The Japanese occupiers conducted an additional Champions' Stakes in May, 1942.[6]
Notable members
- Norwood Allman
- Thomas Chaye Beale(Clerk of the Course)
- C. R. "Chuck" Burkill
- A. W. "Bertie" Burkill (Chairman of the Stewards 1927)
- Sir Paul Chater
- Eric Cumin
- Alexander Dallas
- Frank Dallas
- George Dallas
- John Dent (Scarlet Stables)
- Lambert Dumbar (Bay Stables)
- Edward Ezra
- James Fearon
- A. S. Henchman "Hench"
- J. D. Humphreys
- Dr William Jardine (Tartan Stables)
- Sir Ellis Kadoorie
- Sir John "The Younger" Keswick
- William Keswick
- Ada Law
- Jack Liddell[7]
- Billie Liddell and Vera McBain (We Two Stables)
- John MacGregor (Strath Stables)
- Coll McLean
- Hormusjee Naorojee Mody
- Eric Moller (Moller & Co.)
- Henry Morriss
- David Sassoon "Morn" (Leviathan Stables)
- Sir Victor Sassoon"Eve"
- Major Frank Sutton
- Henry Sylva
- Sir Raymond Toeg "Sir John"
Notable horses
- Mors aux dents (Eugene de Meriten), winner of the first Champions' Stake (1869)
- Picadilly (Paul Chater), winner of the 1884 Champions Cup won
- Hero (David Sassoon), 3 times successive winner of the Champions' Cup from 1890
- Silky Light (Eric Moller), the fastest Shanghai horse to win the Hong Kong Champion's Cup and Hong Kong Triple Crown
- Wheatcroft (Jack Liddel), three times winner of the Champions' Cup in the 1920s
- Radiant Morn (David Sassoon), five times winner of the Champions' Cup in the 1930s
- Cluniehouse (Robert Aitkenhead), winner of the last Champions' Cup before the Japanese Occupation, 1941.[8]
Revival
The original Shanghai Race Club Limited, registered in Hong Kong, was dissolved in 2009.
A British IT entrepreneur,[9] Byron Constable, purchased brand name rights to "Shanghai Race Club" and started a business called "Shanghai Race Club" in 2008. The business operates in mainland China, and concentrates on showcasing European horse racing as a prestige lifestyle. Constable's Shanghai Race Club also hosts an annual Royal Ascot dinner in Shanghai which is followed by a members tour to attend Royal Ascot Ladies Day. The business does not manage racecourses, nor does it organise race meets.[10]
Notes
- ^ 30 m by 14 m
References
- ISBN 9780195815405.
- ^ a b c d Local History Office of the Shanghai Municipality. "上海體育志 - 體育組織". Shanghai Tong. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
- ^ 迁址扩容能否成就全新的上海美术馆. China Youth Daily (in Chinese). 15 January 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
- ^ Shanghai History Museum Reopens, China Internet Information Center.
- ^ 上海市历史博物馆项目落户人民广场文化圈 Archived 2016-12-20 at the Wayback Machine ("Shanghai History Museum Project settles in People's Square culture circle"), Shanghai History Museum
- ^ James Carter, 'Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai'. New York: W.W. Norton, 2020 [1]
- ^ Chang, Ning Jennifer (2021-08-17). "Women in the chase- Sports, empire, and gender in Shanghai, 1860-1945" (PDF).
- ^ James Carter, Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai. New York: W.W. Norton, 2020 [2]
- ^ "Shanghai Race Club Rides Again". Cultural China. Archived from the original on 17 May 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
- ^ "British entrepreneur revives Shanghai Race Club for China's aspiring classes". South China Morning Post. 24 October 2013. Retrieved 14 May 2014.
External links
- "Shanghai Race Club" at Racing Memories Hong Kong
- The Shanghai Race Club, website of the "revived" online business