Horses, Doping, and the Relationalities of Care at the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, 1969–1971

This article explores the relationalities of care involving horses and humans in the context of horse-racing. By examining the horse doping cases in the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club ( RHKJC ) from 1969 to 1971, a historical analysis demonstrates how caring for these relations requires infrastructures and relationalities of care. As a powerful institution that regulated gambling within postwar Hong Kong, the RHKJC became embroiled with allegations of horse doping. The cases involved more than 50 horses during the 1969/70 racing season, resulting in a fatality for one horse. This article argues that these kinds of care are institutional and episodic, both of which are necessary to sustain caring inside and beyond the confines of the racetrack. By positioning these relationalities within the socioeconomic movements of Hong Kong in the 1960s, the article also seeks to include animals and the relationalities of care as integral to Hong Kong’s social history.