No more horsing around: Singapore ends 181 years of horse racing to make way for homes

More than 180 years of horse racing came to an end in Singapore on Saturday, as the Singapore Turf Club hosted its final race day before its track is handed back to the government to provide land for new homes.

Under an overcast sky, the air-conditioned VIP boxes were full of enthusiasts, socialites and expats, while the grounds and betting halls below hosted mostly older-generation punters. The sun broke through for the final race, the Grand Singapore Gold Cup.

South African jockey Muzi Yeni, who rode the winner Smart Star, echoed a feeling of loss shared by many on the day. “I’d like the government to look at it, if I have much say,” he said in a post-race interview.

The site of more than 120 hectares (300 acres) is to be bulldozed for new public and private homes as the nation, smaller than New York City, tries to accommodate a growing population that crossed six million this year. The government has said that this is necessary to ensure “there is sufficient land for future generations.” After some preparation work, the site must be returned by early 2027.

While the decision to end horse racing in the city sent shock waves through the riding and training community when it was announced last year, the sport was already in decline. Spectatorship fell from a race-day average of 11,000 in 2010 to about 6,000 in 2019, before Covid cut attendance by more than half. On Saturday, about 10,000 turned up — a third of the stadium’s capacity.

Younger citizens have migrated to other sports and pastimes. Racing in the city is now dominated by the annual Formula 1 motor race, which in September attracted nearly 270,000 people to its three-day spectacle and concerts.

Horse racing on the island has always had to contend with the need for land. The Singapore Sporting Club was founded by Scottish merchant William Henry Macleod Read in 1842, when the nation was a British colony, and held its first competition the following year at Farrer Road, north of the city center. The event was such an occasion that it was declared a public holiday.

In 1911, the first flight from Singapore, piloted by Belgian aviator Joseph Christiaens, took off from the course, one of the few available areas of flat open land.

Rubber Plantation

As the city grew and interest in the sport increased, the renamed Singapore Turf Club moved to a site further out after purchasing the Bukit Timah Rubber Estate. The new track opened in 1933 and remained the home of the club until 1999, when it was repurposed for other recreational sports. It has since been earmarked for more homes.

Horse racing isn’t the only sport to succumb to the housing expansion. The last 18-hole public golf course closed earlier this year for redevelopment.

The Turf Club’s final home was built as a S$500 million ($384 million) state-of-the art facility, with air-conditioned booths, floodlighting for night races and a grandstand capable of hosting 30,000 spectators.

“Singapore was a world leader in horse racing” and the track was one of the best, said Tim Fitzsimmons, head trainer and director of Fitzsimmons Racing, who had more than 50 horses last year and is relocating back to Australia after coming to Singapore in 2007. “I don’t think it’ll ever come back.”

Many of the thousands who made the trip on Saturday were pensioners who had been coming to the races for decades. Chain-smoking punters cheering on the thoroughbreds, a wheelchair-bound woman chatting with her friends in a Chinese dialect, balding men scrutinizing crumpled sheets of newspaper for details on the horses: All gathered for this last hurrah.

“It is a nice and scenic place, but its glory days are over and it is too expensive to upkeep,” said Song Ya Jing, a 77-year-old part-time cook who was accompanying her husband for a last series of bets. “Maybe my children can live in the public housing one day.”

At the end of the day, a brief video montage on the main screen and small pyrotechnic display brought a modest end to nearly two centuries of horse racing in Singapore. Most of the audience was gone before the sun set below the 41 towering light masts. 

As the last stragglers took pictures amid discarded betting tickets, the screen flashed its final message: “THANK YOU.”