The Asian Mile Challenge is a series of four one-mile (eight furlongs) Thoroughbred horse races. Created in 2005, the series was launched with two races, one in Hong Kong, the other in Japan. In 2006, the Melbourne Racing Club of Australia and the Dubai Racing Club of the United Arab Emirates joined the series.
Raced approxinmately four weeks apart between March and June, a US$1 million bonus is given to any horse who wins two legs of the Asian Mile Challenge. In 2006, the Hong Kong-based horse Bullish Luck collected the bonus after winning the Champions Mile and the Yasuda Kinen.
The Asian Mile Challenge now consists of four Grade I races:
- Futurity Stakes at Caulfield Racecourse, Melbourne
- Dubai Duty Free Stakes at Meydan Racecourse in Dubai
- Champions Mile at Sha Tin Racecourse, Hong Kong
- Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo Racecourse, Tokyo
Famous quotes containing the words asian, mile and/or challenge:
“If he roars at you as you’re dyin’
You’ll know it is the Asian Lion.”
—Carolyn Wells (1862–1942)
“I have got enough of the old masters! Brown says he has “shook” them, and I think I will shake them, too. You wander through a mile of picture galleries and stare stupidly at ghastly old nightmares done in lampblack and lightning, and listen to the ecstatic encomiums of the guides, and try to get up some enthusiasm, but it won’t come.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“The only use of an obstacle is to be overcome. All that an obstacle does with brave men is, not to frighten them, but to challenge them.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)