Horses that have raced in Hong Kong can be recognised by a brand on their nearside (left) shoulder. However, not all horses with a shoulder brand have raced in Hong Kong; racehorses from Macau and Singapore also have a shoulder number that is similar in appearance.
Current and former Hong Kong racehorses may have up to 3 brands on their near and offside shoulders.
Nearside
Hong Kong Brand Number
Consists of a single letter and up to 3 numbers.
The letter indicates the year the horse was imported to Hong Kong; the number is the horse's unique identifier for that year.
Nearside
Stud Brand
May or may not be present, depending on horse's birth location.
Each stud, owner or breeder have their own distinguishing brand.
Offside
Numerical Brand From The Stud
May or may not be present, depending on horse's birth location.
The lower number signifies the last digit of the year the horse was born. For example, a horses branded with a ‘2' may have been born on 2002, 2012 or 2022. The upper number is the horse's unique number for that year.
In Hong Kong, current and former racehorses are generally identified and referred to by brand number rather than name, as each horse has a Chinese name and an English name. Due to the multi-national and multi-language nature of the Club, using a brand number allows for easy and accurate identification and record keeping for each horse across multiple languages.
The Club brand number can be used to search for current and former Hong Kong racehorses on the Club's website. Hong Kong and overseas form records can be found for each horse, alongside videos of each race.
When searching for a particular horse, all brands need to be in a 1 letter, 3-digit format. For example, to search for the form record of a horse with a Club brand of 'P6'; P006 would need to be input into the search function.
The Club brand number does not indicate horse's age, but generally indicates the year the horse was imported into Hong Kong.
Near-side shoulder brand
Racing year imported to Hong Kong
A
2016, 2000
B
2017, 2001
C
2018, 2002
D
2019, 2003
E
2020, 2004
G
2021, 2005
H
2022, 2006
J
2023, 2007
K
2024, 2008
L
2025, 2009, 1993
M
2026, 2010, 1994
N
2027, 2011, 1995
P
2028, 2012, 1996
S
2029, 2013, 1997
T
2030, 2014, 1998
V
2031, 2015, 1999
