Paint tins found on Happy Valley racetrack during Wednesday night’s meeting

The Hong Kong Jockey Club is investigating after three opened containers of paint were found on the back straight of the Happy Valley track during Wednesday night’s races.

The discovery was made during a routine track inspection after the seventh event on the nine-race card and led to race eight jumping late.

“The material was cleared away immediately [and] it was decided to hold the horses behind the starting gates to ensure the start of race eight would only commence when racing stewards were satisfied that it was safe to go ahead,” the Jockey Club said in a statement.

“An additional number of security staff were deployed alongside the normal patrolling security staff to ensure no similar incident could occur.

“After noting the report from our security staff, racing stewards were satisfied that the remaining two races could commence.

“The club takes this very seriously and is looking into the case thoroughly and will review security measures.”

It is unknown how the containers came to be on the track or how long they had been there before the discovery.