National Founding Celebration, Central Introduction, and Hall of Fame Horse Requirements

(Chapters nineteen and twenty mainly explain my own setting for the Huaxia Central system and the breeder series corresponding to it, as well as the criteria for awarding Central Hall of Fame Horses and local Hall of Fame Horses, along with the setting for speed and comparisons between Central and local races. Skip them if you do not want to read.)

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 planned at home anyway, so why not come to the capital with us? The seven days of National Day are a grand occasion for the racing world. If you do not go see it, you can hardly be considered to have officially joined the racing circle."

Luo Fei handed Zhang Jun a promotional booklet and spoke with a smile.

"Founding Celebration? What is that?"

Looking at the large words and horses on the booklet's cover, Zhang Jun asked in confusion.

"The Founding Celebration is Huaxia racing's grand event. Over the seven days of National Day, the Capital Racecourse holds twelve G1 races in succession—the Founding Celebration Series—with two races held each day.

These fourteen series races are divided into the Founding Celebration Turf Series and the 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 intermediate-distance race, a 3,200-meter long-distance race, and filly-only races over 1,600 and 2,000 meters.

Every race has a total purse of over twenty million, making them the richest races in Huaxia. Moreover, in the IFHA's international race rankings, all fourteen races make the annual Top 100, and in quite a few years, they have even ranked first among them."

"A total purse of twenty million?" Hearing that astonishing figure, Zhang Jun could not help drawing in a sharp breath. The total purse for just one race in that series exceeded the inheritance his father had left him.

"That is right. Every purse is over twenty million, and the winner receives at least ten million. Every horse able to enter the series is a strong runner with a G1 victory to its name, and quite a few outstanding foreign horses come to compete for the honor."

Luo Fei nodded and explained, "It can be said that as long as a horse 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 racing world: a racehorse that has never won a Founding Celebration Series race does not count as 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 1 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 come to the capital with us to watch? In the Turf Mile Championship held on the fifth, a horse our ranch sold to a private owner will be running. Its name is Moon Over West River. It has currently won five Grade 1 mile races and is the finest racehorse our ranch has bred so far."

Zhang Jun nodded in agreement, then asked Luo Fei about Central racing.

Because of Central racing's requirement for two years of income documentation, Zhang Jun had been unable to become a Central owner for the past two years. He had therefore not specifically looked into the Central circuit, instead focusing on local races and learning about the local scene.

The local circuit also had a Founding Celebration Series, but 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 tiers, it was uniformly held during the week after National Day.

The Huaxia Breeders' Series was also known as the highest honor in local racing. Only by winning a Grade 1 crown in the series could one participate in the various Representative Horse elections held by the Huaxia Local Racing Association.

During the second week of October, every racecourse held a graded stakes race. In total, there were forty-nine CN1s, one hundred and eight CN2s, and one hundred and seventy-six CN3s, for a total of three hundred and thirty-three graded stakes races.

The forty-nine CN1s covered the five distances for classic-year and older-horse divisions, as well as filly-only races. They also included the final leg of the regional Triple Crowns in the seven local regions of East China, South China, North China, Central China, Northwest China, Southwest China, and Northeast China, along with 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, while three-year-old horses competed for the regional Triple Crowns.

Zhang Jun's current plan was to have Hunting Shadow win a Grade 1 crown in the Huaxia Breeders' Series at age four, before its peak ended.

That way, even if Hunting Shadow could not become a Representative Horse of the Racing Association, it could still become the representative horse of its region or province. This would greatly raise Hunting Shadow's historical standing and leave its name forever in the annals of local racing.

Seeing Zhang Jun asking him for information, Luo Fei explained everything he knew in detail, helping Zhang Jun understand the Central circuit. He even told Zhang Jun, one by one, about local matters Zhang Jun did not know.

Huaxia Central had a total of thirty-one racecourses, distributed across the thirty-one provincial-level administrative regions excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Due to their autonomy, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan had chosen not to join Huaxia's racing system.

These thirty-one racecourses held a total of one hundred and eight international G1s, one hundred and eighty-two G2s, three hundred and twenty-eight G3s, and another two thousand one hundred and seventeen open races.

Aside from the Capital, which held eighteen Grade 1 races due to the Founding Celebration Series, two Derbies, and two Oaks, each of the other thirty racecourses held three Grade 1 races.

Apart from during National Day, when only the Capital Racecourse held the Founding Celebration Series and the Founding-named allowance races, racecourses running at other times held one open-class-or-higher race, one three-win class race, two two-win class races, two or three one-win class races, three or four maiden races, and two maiden races for newcomers each day.

Among Huaxia's one hundred and eight Grade 1 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 every December and the Spring Festival Series held before the Lunar New Year.

At the same time, the Huaxia Central Racing Association classified Hall of Fame Horses into five tiers: Rainbow, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. The names of racehorses awarded Silver Hall of Fame status or above would be frozen and could not be used again.

However, honors at Silver Hall of Fame level and above were only awarded to racehorses that had earned Founding Celebration Series honors. Horses that won the Triple Crown or the Fillies' Triple Crown would also receive them as exceptions.

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 supreme racehorse capable of dominating an entire generation had appeared; it was always a contest among several strong contenders.

Besides Founding Celebration honors, the requirements for the various Hall of Fame awards were based on the number of G1 victories.

For Iron Hall of Fame status, one only needed to win a Grade 1 race. After all, standing out from Huaxia's six hundred and sixty thousand active racehorses to win a Grade 1 was enough to prove a horse's excellence.

Bronze Hall of Fame status required three Grade 1 victories. There were likewise many horses at this level; Jianzhou Cavalier belonged to this tier.

Silver Hall of Fame status required five victories. At Jianzhou Ranch, only Hunting Shadow's maternal grandsire, Jianzhou General, met the requirement. It was also the most accomplished horse Jianzhou Ranch had produced to date.

Gold Hall of Fame status required eight Grade 1 victories and was extremely rare. At present, only nine racehorses in Huaxia had achieved it, and only Tiance General of Tiance Ranch in Jin Province was still alive.

Even if Hall of Fame Horses at this level had poor breeding results, the Central Association would personally preserve their bloodlines and pass down their sire lines or female families.

As for the highest Rainbow Hall of Fame tier, it required not only eleven or more Grade 1 victories, but also the achievement of back-to-back Founding Celebration Series titles.

At present, not a single horse in all of Huaxia had done it. Either they achieved consecutive titles but fell short in total wins, or they met the win requirement but were defeated while pursuing consecutive titles.