Management of international horse racing, with special emphasis on emerging horse racing industries in Asia and the Middle East

Abstract

Horses have been around for centuries and the sport of horse racing stems from an innate human desire for competition. This paper will follow the style of an integrated literature review and seek new information regarding horse racing in emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East. Horse racing is possibly the one sport that can be recognized on a grade 1 or top-level status on every continent on the globe except for Antarctica. There are million dollar races in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Some of the most well-known races in the world are held in North America and Europe. Due to the recent growth of the Dubai World Cup in the United Arab Emirates of the Middle East and the extreme revenue from the gambling markets of Hong Kong and Japan in Asia, this paper will focus on finding historical and current information regarding the lesser-known and emerging horse racing markets of countries in these regions while summarizing the developed nations' industries For simplicity reasons, the regions of Asia are divided into three districts. Some countries are included on the list just to clarify that research was put into investigating the existence of organized horse racing but for various reasons, including time constraints and availability of information, they may not be a focus of this paper. Countries emboldened in red text are members of the Asian Racing Federation.

Horse racing in Asia South Asia:

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. East and Southeast Asia: Brunei, Cambodia, China (including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau), Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

Horse racing in the Middle East:

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Israel, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The only members of the Asian Racing Federation not included in this research paper are: Australia, Mauritius, New Zealand, and South Africa, due to their obvious locations in Australasia or Africa.