Horse Racing Fans in China Betting on a Longshot BEIJING - Horse racing may be the sport of kings, but not of Communists. Not here in China, anyway. Sixty-four years ago this week the Chinese Communist Party seized power and banned the sport. And despite the many racecourses built in the past two decades by overseas and Chinese investors hoping the government will have a change of heart, despite breathless reports in the domestic and overseas news media predicting the advent of an industry here, despite the showcase races that do take place, the odds are, well, very long that anything will change anytime soon, insiders say. "There's been no refusal," a horse trainer based in China said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of social and political sensitivities. The government never promised to do it. It's been their bottom line since 1949. Gambling is illegal. There's no structure, no income to sustain it, because of the ban on betting. You can race all you like. You just can't bet. But horse racing, like baseball, is a field of dreams. "China champs at the bit," ran a recent headline in the state-run newspaper China Daily, increasing the hopes of enthusiasts here and around the world. From time to time, rumors circulate that the government will relent and introduce large-scale "horse lotteries," a toned-down form of betting. But such reports are generally quickly denied, though the proposal is believed to be technically under consideration. 21 in Hohhot, the capital of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, there was some racing at the China Equine Cultural Festival, including a purse of 1 million renminbi, or $163,000, for the winner of the National Cup, according to the Web site of the China Horse Club, an organizer. It was a "maiden step" toward a "renaissance of racing in mainland China," the club said. "High-level racing does not necessarily rely on betting," Teo Ah Khing, a Malaysian entrepreneur and architect and initiator of the event, told China Daily. If the purse is high enough, the competition can also be very attractive. So the dream lives on. In Wuhan last week, a prerevolution hotbed of horse racing, I visited the track at Orient Lucky City, home of the Wuhan Jockey Club, backed by Jacky Wu, a Hong Kong investor (slogan: "Dreaming is Believing"). For days I had gotten polite but vague promises of an interview, including a "please send us your questions by fax." It all faded into nothing. At one point a person answering the telephone of Ms. Lu, my interlocutor at the Orient Lucky Horse Group, said my request was not convenient because she was "in hospital." Nobody seemed willing to meet me, to put it mildly. I went anyway. Located in the Dongxihu district north of the Yangtze River, the racecourse is enormous, with a high, gray viewing stand and light green seats overlooking a sweeping track of 1,620 meters, or about 5,300 feet. It was also deserted. Doors labeled "Wuhan Jockey Club" were padlocked. Grass lined steps and access roads. The entrance to an underground parking lot was sealed off with a makeshift blue-and-white tarpaulin. Water stains and broken slabs provided a disconsolate decoration. I walked in through a single open gate, keen to see the equine field of dreams. "Where are you going?" shouted a security guard. After some negotiating I continued through a covered passageway, determined to see the sandy track that shone up ahead. And there it was, running around a tree-filled park where birds hopped. For Wuhan, a raging megalopolis of construction sites, the peace was inviting. But the security guard was at my elbow. "You must leave," he said. I asked what happened there. "Not much - entertainment," he said, referring to events where some horses run, but not for money. Ms. Lu had said there would be such an event two days after my visit, on a Saturday, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. How does it work? I asked. "No money," he said. No tickets. Free in. But you must leave. He escorted me out. Why all the investment? Orient Lucky City alone cost more than $200 million to build, according to its Web site (the sum includes other types of investment like real estate). "It's got to do with being the first one to get racing going in China," said the trainer based in Beijing. But for now, despite intense interest among wealthy Chinese, the sport here is largely limited to pleasure horses and private clubs, he said, and that is not likely to change anytime soon. With revenues falling in many parts of the world, that is bad news for racegoers. "There are so many people around the world, especially in America and Australia, who are waiting for this, because the bottom is falling out of the market there," the trainer said. They think the Chinese will be the saving of the horse all over the world.