The curtain will come down on 182 years of racing in Singapore on Saturday with the 100th and final running of the Singapore Gold Cup.
Renamed the S$1.38m Grand Singapore Gold Cup (2000m) for the final edition, the race will be run at 10:40pm New Zealand time as the last of ten races.
For the host of participants at the magnificent Kranji facility, it will be a bitter-sweet feeling as a sell-out crowd of more than 10,000 cheer on the local racing stars, only to see the state-of-the-art training and racing centre closed for business forever soon after.
The tiny island’s need for land requires the Singapore Turf Club’s entire 120 hectares (297 acres) be handed back to the government in 2027 for redevelopment into public and private housing.
Trainer Daniel Meagher will be gunning for a third Singapore Gold Cup with leading chances care of last year’s victor Lim’s Kosciuszko and Raffles Cup (1600m) hero Lim’s Saltoro. Both horses were sourced from New Zealand.
Under the handicap conditions of the Grand Singapore Gold Cup, Lim’s Kosciuszko will give the second highest-rated horse and his heir apparent Lim’s Saltoro six kilos, and eight kilos to 11 of the other runners in the capacity field of 16.
It would be a tough ask indeed for the ‘little horse’, with Meagher pointing to Lim’s Saltoro, a son of Shamexpress, as the obvious danger.
“My heart says ‘Kosi’ but my brain says (Lim’s) Saltoro,” Meagher said.
“He (Lim’s Saltoro) had a tough week before the QEII (Cup) and I thought his run was exceptional (ran third).
“He beat ‘Kosi’ in the Raffles Cup (over 1600m on 11 August) at his previous start. Both those races were run under weight-for-age conditions, so he gets a massive pull in the weights on Saturday, and 2000m isn’t a problem for him.
“I can’t fault Lim’s Saltoro either. He does his own things at trackwork, but we are very happy with how he is going into Saturday.”
Meagher, who will relocate to Pakenham in the coming months, will be kept busy with 15 runners on Saturday but knows it will be an emotional ending regardless of the results.
“This place has been my life for over 25 years. My wife (Sabrina), kids (Caiden, Harper and Vienna) and God knows how many good mates I’ve made here.
“No work come Monday after so many years. I’m heartbroken but I have a job to do this week. Win, lose or draw, we will have a gathering with (fellow trainer) Jason Ong and all our workers back at the stables on Saturday night.
“I think that’s when it will sink in.”
Photo: Trish Dunell
Kiwi expat Donna Logan will also be represented by six runners on the final day including Gold Cup runner Istataba but said it was a strange feeling.
“I think everybody’s emotions are running very high,” Logan said. “It’s just an empty feeling. Can you actually get your head around that this is our last week?
“I did my video of a gallop yesterday morning, and I said, ‘this is such a historical moment, this will be the last gallop I will video at Kranji’ and the reality has really kicked in.
“We’ve got six runners and we’re hoping we can get a winner. We had Elliot Ness win last week for Fortuna Racing with Manuel Nunes in the saddle and it would be nice to get a winner on the final day.”
Logan has found homes for every horse in her stable, with some to continue racing across the border in Malaysia.
“I’ve homed every horse that we have left here. The majority of our staff we’ve already had to let go. So, we’re down to a real skeleton staff,” she said.
“There’s a few staff that haven’t worked out what they’ll do. I’ve got a couple I’m trying to bring to New Zealand with me, but that’s all up to immigration.
“I’d love to bring them all over because they’re great staff. They’re very dedicated and they really have a love of their horses and they’re so calm, which is a big contributing factor to the animal.
“It is so sad to see such a wonderful racing industry close after so many years. All the history of this place (Kranji) and Bukit Timah before that.”
Despite the emotional week, Logan has plenty to look forward to as the highly-regarded trainer returns to a rejuvenated New Zealand racing industry.
“We will be setting up stables back in New Zealand at Byerley Park and I’m getting good support from owners back home,” Logan said.
“You want to be where the action is and Ellerslie will be the pin-up venue with the high stake-money races so I decided to be as close to Ellerslie as I could get, which is an important factor for me and my clients going forward.”