The Doug Campbell-trained sprinter King’s Bay has become the first South African-bred horse to be sold to the China Horse Club as part o their global expansio

King’s Bay, bred and part-owned by Campbell, is a three-year-old King Of Kings colt who has won six of his eight starts.

He is to travel to Cape Town where he will join the next batch of overseas bound horses at the Kenilworth quarantine station in February.

It is not yet known whether he will run in January’s G1 Cape Flying Championship in Cape Town beforehand.

His long term destination is France, where he will join the China Horse Club’s team trained by Nicolas Clement.

Robin Bruss brokered the sale to the China Horse Club, an operation that promises to become a major global player.

Bruss met members of the China Horse Club when he accompanied jockeys Gavin Lerena, S’Manga Khumalo and Kevin Shea to the first internationally endorsed thoroughbred race meeting in mainland China held at Chengjun racecourse in Hohtot, Inner Mongolia, on September 21.

The China Horse Club is a business and social club whose members are mainly from Beijing.

They already have racing teams in France, Australia, Singapore, the US and Ireland and recently enjoyed their first G1 win when their four-year-old Tropaios, trained by Michael Freedman and ridden by Orakaei Korako, won the Singapore Gold Cup at Kranji.

In October another of their team Tabreed, trained by Christophe Clement and ridden by James Graham, won at Keeneland in Kentucky.

The China Horse Club ave an interest in Aiden O’Brien’s 2014 classic hope Australia, a Galileo colt out of the superstar mare Ouija Board.

The China Horse Club have chosen France and Ireland as their main bases due to the ease of raiding big races around the world from those countries.

Horse racing thrived in China until the communists took power in 1949 and banned it.

The China Horse Club are now very part of the intended renaissance and membership is expected to reach 1000.

China’s grand racing plan includes the development of a “horse city” in Tianjin, an industrial city 100km from Beijing, that will consist of a major breeding operation, training centre and racecourse.

The joint venture partners in the development are the Tianjin State Farms Agribusiness Group; TAK Group, the Malaysian architects instrumental in designing Dubai’s Meydan; and Coolmore Stud.