One final hurrah as Singapore bids emotional farewell to horse racing
Ten races, ending with the Grand Singapore Gold Cup, will stir memories from the last 182 years
ONCE all the frenzy and excitement of Saturday’s (Oct 5) 10 races – culminating in the historic S$1.38 million Grand Singapore Gold Cup – are over, expect to see many in the anticipated 10,000-strong sellout crowd at the Singapore Turf Club shed tears in sadness.
The pain of knowing that horse racing in Singapore is ending after 182 years will surely be too much to bear for the passionate racing fraternity here and across the region.
No more will we see thousands of people flocking to Kranji on race days. We will no longer get to feel the adrenaline of watching those horses galloping to the finish line.
And gone will be the sight of their suited owners, thoughtful trainers and colourfully-attired jockeys milling around in the Kranji parade area.
Long association
This date – Oct 5, 2024 – will also go down in history as Singapore’s final salute to horse racing after the long association from the colonial era at Farrer Park to the heady days at Bukit Timah and finally to the kinship at Kranji through the millennium.
It was 1842 when horse racing, better known as the “Sport of Kings”, made its debut in a Singapore which at the time had a population of about 60,000.
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On Oct 4 that year, Scottish merchant William Henry Macleod Read wanted to encourage the importation of horses into Singapore. This led to a push for horse racing to start on the island, and the creation of a specially curated Heritage Walk.
Read, a partner in the merchant firm A L Johnston and Co, went on to found the Singapore Sporting Club, which eventually became the Singapore Turf Club.
The Straits Racing Association, formed in 1896, subsequently conducted formal horse racing at Farrer Park.
Read’s arrival in Singapore in 1841, after a five-month sea journey from London, afforded him plenty of time to let his mind and imagination wander. Whenever he felt restless, he would ride an Achin pony with a syce running alongside.
One evening, Read and two like-minded friends – fellow Scot Charles Spottiswoode, a prosperous merchant, and William Napier, a lawyer and newspaper editor who was also the first lieutenant-governor of Labuan – set the wheels in motion for to start horse racing in Singapore.
On the morning of Feb 23, 1843 (declared a national holiday), a 300-strong community comprising Britons, Germans, Portuguese, Jews and Americans arrived at the course in horse-drawn carriages.
When the bugle sounded for the 11 am start, six horses trotted onto the field for the first race, with the Singapore Cup worth S$150 presented to the winner.
Read was among the riders at the starting blocks, astride a bay horse called Colonel. The others in the line-up were mares Lady Mary and Madge Wildfire, and three other horses – Praklang, Marmion and Elipo.
Colonel won both heats in stylish fashion, with Read displaying excellent jockeyism.
Read and Colonel will easily be remembered today as the first two races are named William Henry Macleod Read Cup and Colonel Cup.
Honouring big names
Memories will be stirred further this Saturday with the Abdul Mawi Cup (Race 5), named after the first local jockey to win the Singapore Gold Cup in 1958, and Magdalene Tan Cup (Race 6) labelled after the first local female jockey.
Considered by many as the best horse to have ever raced in Singapore, Rocket Man will be honoured at Race 9. The winner will receive the Rocket Man Cup.
Trained by Patrick Shaw, Rocket Man – the son of the stallion Viscount – was undefeated on local soil (17 runs for 17 wins) and was the first Singapore-based galloper to win an international Group 1 race.
Bringing the curtains down on local horse racing will be the Grand Singapore Gold Cup, which was inaugurated in 1924 at the Farrer Park course. For this final race, 16 top-rated horses have been entered.
The favourite for the 2,000-metre test of skill and endurance is the much-heralded Lim’s Kosciuszko (Marc Lerner aboard) although the 58 kg weight allocation may be a factor. Riding him close could be Lim’s Saltoro, Dream Alliance and Makin.
Speaker of Parliament Seah Kian Peng, who will be the guest of honour, will present the Grand Singapore Gold Cup. Not long after, everyone will bid farewell to an historic event and venue that have withstood the test of time and will live long in the memory.
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