They used to say that, wherever the British turned up, they started out by building a club, a town hall and then a racecourse. Follow the expansion of the British Empire, and horse racing follows the flag as assuredly as gunboats and bad food. The Brits had a racecourse up and running within a couple of years of securing Shanghai as a treaty port in 1842. The Shanghai Race Club and its track were established in the centre of the International Settlement by 1862. Walk through the highly landscaped, but rather soulless, People’s Park sandwiched between the Yanan Expressway and Nanjing Road today, and you’re on the Race Club’s hallowed turf.

• Tags: China, Issue 20, James Carter, Paul French