If horse-racing here has run its course, so be it
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WHEN the news of the Singapore Turf Club’s impending closure was delivered, it was framed in practical terms, with figures that were hard to argue against.
The popularity of horse-racing has plummeted. Average attendance halved from 2010 to 2019, from 11,000 to 6,000 each race day. Post-pandemic, it halved yet again to just 2,600 per race day.
Meanwhile, the racecourse’s 120 hectares can hardly afford to be left unproductive, in the face of the land-scarce island’s increasing demands for space. Far more optimal to use it for housing, not least public housing – with property analysts swiftly calculating that it could host tens of thousands of new homes.
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