How to Watch Asian Horse Racing: TV, Streaming and Official Apps

Where to watch horse racing live in Asia

The simplest way to watch racing live in Asia is to go to a racecourse. In Japan, admission on a live race day is cheap: JPY 100 at Sapporo Racecourse and JPY 100 at Kokura Racecourse, while Tokyo Racecourse charges JPY 200 on live race days⁶. On days when a racecourse has no live races and is used as an off-track betting facility, Tokyo Racecourse offers free admission⁷.

Japan has 10 JRA racecourses and off-track betting facilities around the country, and races are held at two to three racecourses on a race day². That matters for planning: you are not choosing between one track and another on a given weekend, you are choosing which of the active tracks suits you. A racing day at JRA has 12 races².

If you would rather watch from a seat than from the rail, some venues sell special viewing seats. At one Japanese local track, the special viewing seats have dedicated monitors on the tables and overlook the whole course, with a close view of the gate start at the 1400m starting point and of the horses from the final straight to the goal¹⁰. That is the comfortable option on a wet or cold day.

In Hong Kong, the Happy Valley racecourse is the midweek fixture most visitors know, and the 2/F Track View Terrace gives a sweeping view of the racetrack plus a diamond vision screen broadcasting live races from multiple angles¹¹. You get the live pictures even when you are standing at the rail.

Korea is straightforward for English speakers, with one important limit: English commentary is currently only available for Seoul and Busan races³. If you are at another Korean track, you can still watch, but the commentary will not be in English.

Racecourse admission at a glance

Official club apps and streaming services

Hong Kong is the easiest jurisdiction in Asia to watch from a phone. The HKJC TV app is a one-stop platform for live streaming, replays and infotainment, with Racing, Football and Mark Six channels, news, barrier trials, trackwork videos and raceday statistics, and it works without logging in¹. The Racing Touch app goes further: it brings together comprehensive racing information, horse selection, live streaming and instant betting in one integrated app¹².

One detail to know before you rely on Racing Touch for everything: the card view of a horse profile is only available on iPhone and Android mobile¹². If you are on a tablet or a desktop browser, expect a reduced version of that particular feature.

Live streaming through the club is free on both local and simulcast races, and the stream can be faster than the TV channel depending on your network band, district and location¹². That last point is worth remembering on a big race day, when the television feed can lag behind what people around you are already celebrating.

Malaysia's Perak Turf Club publishes a digital race program and race cards on its website, and a printed program at the racecourse published by iRace¹³. If you are going in person, the printed program is the thing to pick up on arrival.

Singapore's Livewire venues show live telecasts of selected horse races⁴. At Livewire Majestic, live horse racing is available until the final live football match concludes, so the racing coverage runs alongside the football rather than stopping when the last race is off¹⁴.

Simulcast racing: how it works and what you can watch

A simulcast is a race run at one track and shown live somewhere else, so you can watch racing from another country without traveling to it. Hong Kong shows free live streaming on both local and simulcast races¹². In the Racing Touch app, you open the "Race" page and press "S1" or "S2" to enter the simulcast racing page¹².

Japan designates major international races for simulcast, which tells you what will be shown. The list includes:

• The Derby Stakes and Eclipse Stakes from the UK
• The Queen Elizabeth Stakes from Australia
• The Irish Champion Stakes from Ireland
• The Belmont Stakes, the Breeders' Cup Classic from the USA
• The Hong Kong Sprint and Hong Kong Cup from Hong Kong¹⁵

If you follow Japanese racing, those are the overseas meetings that will appear on the simulcast schedule.

If you want the betting side of simulcast racing explained, including how pools from different places are combined, see Commingled Pools and Simulcast Betting.

Simulcast module: what the Racing Academy teaches

The Racing Academy is the Hong Kong Jockey Club's free learning resource, and it covers racing knowledge in six key categories: "Racecourse", "System", "Horse", "Jockey", "Trainer" and "Wager"¹⁶. It is written for people who are new to the sport rather than for regulars.

The simulcast module introduces simulcast racing through "Racecourse", "System", "Draw Analysis" and "Jockey & Trainer"¹⁶. In other words, it explains where the race is being run, how the simulcast system works, how the draw affects the running, and what to look for in the jockey and trainer.

Other modules in the Academy cover race analysis via "Form", "Condition", "Class and Weight", "Jockey and Trainer", "Draw" and "Pace", the introduction of bet types, exotic bets and All Up, and a module on the four key steps to formulate a betting strategy¹⁶. If you are watching a simulcast from a jurisdiction whose form you do not know, the race analysis module is the one that transfers best.

Upcoming race meetings and simulcast dates

Race meetings in Asia run on a weekly rhythm, and knowing the pattern helps you plan what to watch.

In Japan, a JRA race day has 12 races, and meetings are held at two to three racecourses on the same day². On September 26, 2026, for example, race 2 at the Nakayama meeting was posted for 10:15⁹. Morning starts are normal, so an early alarm is part of watching Japanese racing live from another time zone.

Japanese local racing runs its own calendar. Hokkaido Horse Racing scheduled 15 meetings over 80 days, from April 18 to November 9, with all meetings held at Mombetsu Racecourse as Grand Shario Nighter¹⁸. Tokyo City Keiba publishes its meeting dates and entry deadlines in advance; for one September 2026 meeting, all races on day 2, September 15, had an entry vote deadline of September 12¹⁹.

Korea releases its race schedule in advance too, with 17 races per day on Saturdays and Sundays²⁰. KBOAT is the body that runs Korea's boat racing, known as kyungjung, so its race card is a boat racing card rather than a horse racing one: it shows racer information, past race data, weight change, head-to-head records, course acquisition rates, motor and boat performance records, and real-time updated information²¹. That is the level of detail available for boat racing if you want to follow a meeting closely rather than just watch the pictures.

For the wider picture of when each jurisdiction races through the year, see Horse Racing Seasons in Asia.

Conghua Racecourse: international racing on the schedule

Conghua Racecourse in Guangzhou is the big change on the Asian racing calendar. It will hold its first regular races in 2026⁵. World-class thoroughbred racing begins there from October 2026, and the meetings have no betting services⁵.

That last point is the one to plan around. You can go to Conghua to watch international-level racing, but you cannot bet there, so it is a spectator outing rather than a betting one. The first racing at the venue in seven years is scheduled for October 31, 2026⁵.

For the background on the venue, its location and what it means for racing in mainland China, see Conghua Racecourse.

Where to check the current rules of racing

For a viewer, rule changes rarely alter what you can watch. They matter more if you bet, because they can affect how a race is run, how results are settled and how inquiries are handled. If you follow racing closely, the practical move is to check the current rules on the club's own site rather than relying on last season's understanding.

What is not covered by official broadcasts

Official broadcasts do not show everything, and a few gaps are worth knowing before you plan an evening around a stream.

In Japan, the local racing live service is available only as past race video from overseas; live streaming is not available to users outside Japan²⁰. So if you are outside the country, you can watch replays of Japanese local racing but not the live feed through that service. The service itself carries no usage fee, though high data charges are possible on metered plans²⁰.

Account-based streaming is another limit. Under one operator's terms, live streaming services are open to account holders, who may subscribe via the website or the relevant mobile apps, and a non-account holder may not subscribe²². If a stream you want sits behind that kind of service, you need an account first. For who can open one, see Official Online Horse Racing Betting Accounts in Asia.

In Hong Kong, some streams on the website require you to be logged in to watch live streaming, even though the HKJC TV app does not¹. If a feed will not start, that is usually the reason.

At Singapore's Livewire venues, a numbered wristband issued by the venue is mandatory for all live horse racing telecast and live football betting⁴. You cannot walk in and watch without one, so collect it on arrival.

Finally, official broadcasts cover racing. They do not cover the offshore sites that stream and take bets on Asian racing, which sit outside the licensed system. For how those work and the risk they carry, see Offshore Sites Taking Bets on Asian Horse Racing.