SINGAPORE — Race day at the Singapore Turf Club is always pumping with adrenaline as the cheers of punters fill the grandstand.
At the Emirates Singapore Derby yesterday, spectators stood, many tightly gripping their betting guides, as they kept their eyes peeled on the horses racing down the track.
Boisterous as the crowd was, it’s not as much the spectacle that it used to be when horse racing was in its prime in Singapore in the 1990s. With the rise of local casinos, and few young people interested in the game, the turf club's heyday has come and gone. Its turnover was $1.377 billion in 2015-16, down 5 per cent from 2014-15. In 2010-11, it was $1.848 billion.
"Where gaming is concerned, the casinos have taken a big chunk of the market," laments racehorse trainer Saimee Jumaat who, together with other trainers, works closely with the turf club's management. "We have plans to fight back," says Saimee, 45, a former champion jockey who now trains for J Saimee Thoroughbred Racing.
The turf club was founded in 1842 and is managed by the Tote Board. It is Singapore's only horse racing club and holds up to 900 races annually.
Under new leadership, the club, which moved to Kranji from Bukit Timah in 1999, has plans to rebrand itself as a lifestyle hub in the island’s north as it looks to draw more than just the punters.
"We are trying to see how we can revitalise the sport, as well as maximise the potential of the land and use it to better serve the community," says Soong Tze Ming, the chief operating officer of the club.
Over the June holidays, the turf club opened its stable gates to the public, as part of recent initiatives to attract more visitors. For the first time, the public got to see the inner workings of STC, including its training grounds and in-house vet hospital. The turf club’s annual carnival, which was held last month, is another avenue to attract people who do not know about horse racing, according to Soong.
Saimee, who says he wants to encourage more young people to get involved in horse racing, said of the future of the club: "Horse racing (and the turf club) provides employment to a lot of people and it's one of the biggest sports in Singapore. It's a huge industry and it will be sad for it to go down."
Originally published in The Straits Times
