Kranji Racecourse Picture: Mark Dadswell/Getty Images
15 Minute meeting ends 180 years of horse racing in Singapore
By Siti Rahil, Kyodo News – (article written on August 15)
The 100th Singapore Gold Cup in October 2024 will mark the end of horse racing in the city-state as its only track is closed for redevelopment.
The decision made by the government in June came like a thunderbolt to horse trainer Mahadi Taib.
Mahadi said executives of the Singapore Turf Club, which manages Kranji Racecourse, the third track in its 181-year history, informed him and other horse trainers suddenly during a meeting on June 5 that the club will be closed down and the land rented from the state will be returned.
“One hundred and eighty years of prestige but the meeting was 15 minutes,” Mahadi said.
“Everyone was sad. We don’t know where our direction is,” said the 52-year-old who had imported horses in recent months to revive his business after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The club owned by the Tote Board, a statutory board under the Finance Ministry, will end its operations following the Singapore Gold Cup to be held on Oct. 5 next year.
After the race, around 700 horses will be sent overseas in batches until March 2026, according to the government, and the land will be returned to the state in March 2027.
The government, which owns the majority of the city-state’s land, has said it plans to use the site for public and private housing amid surging demand from young couples and foreign buyers following delayed construction during the pandemic.
Singapore, which says it is studying other possible uses for the site including leisure facilities, has been supporting money-spinners such as two casinos that opened in 2010 and Formula One racing introduced in 2008.
Indranee Rajah, who serves as second minister in the Finance and National Development ministries, told at a press conference in June that the decision was difficult but necessary.
“As you know, Singapore is land constrained and we do need this land for other uses,” Rajah said.
Kranji Racecourse, which occupies 124 hectares of land in a quiet leafy area in the northern suburbs of Singapore, was built at a cost of S$500 million ($372 million) and opened in 1999. It is located between a World War II cemetery and a semiconductor wafer fabrication park.
The Singapore Turf Club, the first horse racing club in Southeast Asia, was established in 1842 during the British colonial era.
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, known for her love of horse racing, visited the club’s second racecourse in 1972 and the current Kranji track in 2006. Its annual Queen Elizabeth II Cup was launched in 1972.
Singapore’s decision to end horse racing has been met with shock and dismay among trainers, owners and fans.
Michael Clements, president of the Association of Racehorse Trainers Singapore, said, “It came as a total surprise to us. There was no dialogue whatsoever between the government and the club” before the announcement.
