(Chapters nineteen and twenty mainly explained my own Huaxia Central system and the Breeders Series modeled after it, followed by the criteria for Central Hall of Fame Horses and Local Hall of Fame Horses, as well as the speed settings and comparison between Central and local races. Skip them if you are not interested.)
After visiting the two young fillies being raised at Jianzhou Ranch, Zhang Jun was preparing to return to his school dormitory when Luo Fei called out to him.
"Ajun, tomorrow is National Day. You do not have anything going on at home anyway, so why not come to the capital with us? The seven days of National Day are a grand event for the horse racing world. If you do not go see it, you cannot really be considered part of the racing world."
Luo Fei handed Zhang Jun a promotional booklet and spoke with a smile.
"Founding Day Grand Celebration? What is that?"
Zhang Jun looked at the large words and horse on the booklet's cover and asked in confusion.
"The Founding Day Grand Celebration is Huaxia horse racing's grand event. During the seven days of National Day, the Capital Racecourse will hold twelve G1 races in succession—the Founding Celebration Series—with two races held each day.
These fourteen series races are divided into the Founding Day Grand Celebration turf series and dirt series.
Each includes seven races: a 1,000-meter sprint, a 1,600-meter mile, a 2,000-meter middle-distance race, a 2,400-meter middle-long-distance race, a 3,200-meter long-distance race, and two filly-restricted races over 1,600 and 2,000 meters.
Every race has a total purse exceeding twenty million, making them the highest-paying races in Huaxia. Furthermore, in the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities' IFHA international race rankings, all fourteen races make the top one hundred every year. In quite a few years, they have even ranked first among the top hundred races."
"A total purse of twenty million?" Hearing that astonishing figure, Zhang Jun could not help drawing a sharp breath. The total purse for just one race in this series was greater than the inheritance his father had left him.
"That's right. Every race has a total purse of more than twenty million, and the winner receives at least ten million. Every horse qualified to run in the series is a strong horse with G1-winning honors, and quite a few outstanding foreign horses also come to compete for the honor."
Luo Fei nodded and explained to Zhang Jun, "It can be said that as long as a racehorse wins one race in the series, it can lock down that year's representative horse award for the corresponding surface and distance. These are Huaxia's most prestigious races.
There is a saying in Huaxia's horse racing world: a racehorse that has never won the Founding Celebration Series cannot be considered a strong horse.
For Huaxia's owners, trainers, jockeys, and breeders, no matter how high a horse's international rating is or how many Grade One Races it has won, as long as it has never won the Founding Celebration Series, it can never become a representative horse or a Gold Hall of Fame horse in Huaxia.
So, do you want to go to the capital with us to watch the races? In the turf mile championship on the fifth, a racehorse our ranch sold to a private owner will be competing. Her name is West River Moon. She has already won five mile Grade One Races and is the finest racehorse our ranch has bred so far."
Zhang Jun nodded in agreement, then asked Luo Fei about Central horse racing.
Because of Central horse racing's requirement for two years of income records, Zhang Jun had been unable to become a Central owner during the past two years. He had therefore never specifically looked into the Central circuit, instead focusing on local races and learning about the local scene.
Local racing also had a Founding Celebration Series, though it was not called that. It was called the Huaxia Breeders Series. Since local racing did not hold races during National Day week in order to avoid clashing with Central racing, and because local racecourses were divided into different tiers, the series was uniformly held during the week after National Day.
The Huaxia Breeders Series was also known as local horse racing's highest honor. Only by winning a Grade One Race in the series could a horse participate in the various representative horse elections held by the Huaxia Local Horse Racing Association.
During the second week of October, every racecourse held a Graded Stakes race. Altogether, there were forty-nine CN1 races, one hundred and eight CN2 races, one hundred and seventy-six CN3 races, for a total of three hundred and thirty-three Graded Stakes races.
The forty-nine CN1 races covered the five distances for Classic-year and older-horse races, as well as filly-restricted races. They also included the final leg of the regional Triple Crown in Huaxia's seven regions—East China, South China, North China, Central China, Northwest, Southwest, and Northeast—as well as the final leg of the local Triple Crown.
Because Huaxia local racing had too many racehorses, the nationwide local Triple Crown was contested during the older-horse year at age four. Three-year-old horses competed for the regional Triple Crown honors instead.
Zhang Jun's current plan was to have Shadow Hunter win a Grade One Race in the Huaxia Breeders Series at age four, before his peak came to an end.
That way, even if Shadow Hunter could not become a representative horse of the horse racing association, he could still become the representative horse of his region or province. It would greatly improve Shadow Hunter's historical standing and leave his name forever in local racing history.
Seeing Zhang Jun ask him for information, Luo Fei explained everything he knew in detail, helping Zhang Jun understand the Central circuit. Luo Fei even told Zhang Jun, one by one, about certain local details Zhang Jun did not know.
Huaxia Central had a total of thirty-one racecourses, spread across the thirty-one provincial-level administrative regions excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Due to their autonomy, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan had chosen not to join Huaxia's horse racing system.
These thirty-one racecourses held a total of one hundred and eight international G1 races, one hundred and eighty-two G2 races, three hundred and twenty-eight G3 races, as well as two thousand one hundred and seventeen open races.
Other than the Capital Racecourse, which held eighteen Grade One Races due to the Founding Celebration Series, two Derbies, and two Oaks races, each of the other thirty racecourses held three Grade One Races.
Other than during National Day, when only the Capital Racecourse held the Founding Celebration Series and conditions races bearing the Founding Day name, every racecourse running on other dates held at least one open race per day, one three-win race, two two-win races, two or three one-win races, three or four maiden races, and two Debutant Races.
Among Huaxia's one hundred and eight Grade One Races, the Founding Celebration Series, the turf and dirt Triple Crowns, and the Fillies' Triple Crown were the most important and prestigious. Next came the year-end series held at the end of December and the Spring Festival Series held before Spring Festival.
At the same time, the Huaxia Central Horse Racing Association graded Hall of Fame Horses into five levels: Rainbow, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. The names of racehorses reaching Silver Hall of Fame or above would be frozen and could not be used again.
However, Silver Hall of Fame honors and above were awarded only to racehorses that had earned honors in the Founding Celebration Series. Racehorses that won the Triple Crown or Fillies' Triple Crown would also receive the honor as an exception.
But Huaxia Central had yet to produce a Triple Crown winner. Huaxia was simply too vast, with too many ranches and strong horses constantly emerging. To this day, no overwhelmingly dominant racehorse had appeared that could suppress an entire generation; it had always been a contest among several powerful horses.
Aside from Founding Day Grand Celebration honors, the criteria for each Hall of Fame level were based on the number of G1 wins.
For Iron Hall of Fame, all a horse needed was a Grade One Race victory. After all, being able to stand out among Huaxia's six hundred and sixty thousand active racehorses and win a Grade One Race was enough to prove its excellence.
Bronze Hall of Fame required three Grade One Race victories. There were likewise many horses at this level, and Jianzhou Swift Cavalier belonged to it.
Silver Hall of Fame required five victories. Of Jianzhou Ranch's horses, only Shadow Hunter's damsire, Jianzhou Senior General, met the requirement. He was also the most accomplished horse Jianzhou Ranch had produced to date.
Gold Hall of Fame required eight Grade One Race victories, and there were extremely few such horses. At present, only nine racehorses in Huaxia had achieved this, and only Tiance Senior General of Tiance Ranch in Jin Province was still alive.
Even if Hall of Fame horses at this level performed poorly at stud, the Central Association would personally preserve their bloodlines and continue their sire lines or female lines.
As for the highest level, Rainbow Hall of Fame, a horse not only needed to win eleven or more Grade One Races, but also had to achieve consecutive victories in the Founding Celebration Series.
At present, not a single horse in all of Huaxia had done so. Either they achieved consecutive victories but fell short in total wins, or they met the win requirement but were defeated while pursuing consecutive victories.