Clements depature an example of current situation in Singapore
Last Sunday afternoon, this columnist received an unexpected email from a public relations firm with a statement on behalf of the Singapore Turf Club about the departure of Kranji’s champion trainer Michael Clements.
Clements, fed up with the inaction of the Turf Club and carrying the weight of his peers on his shoulders with the demise of racing in the city state to conclude on October 5 next year, decided to call time on his successful training career in Singapore.
ANZ Bloodstock News reached out to the Turf Club, via Dayle Brown, the previous Tuesday for a response after we had learned of Clements’ decision to close his stable and relinquish his stable, effective after tomorrow’s meeting.
Clements, since the Turf Club statement, backed up his original comments about the club’s treatment of its trainers, owners and jockeys, labelling the conduct “morally wrong” in Wednesday’s edition of ANZ, an article which unsurprisingly gained significant traction in Asia.
The expatriate Clements, a nationalised Singaporean after 25 years living in the island state, won’t be the last to call it quits ahead of the club’s planned curtain-closing meeting in 53 weeks’ time.
It’s long odds-on that racing will be gone forever in Singapore well before that date.
In the statement, the Turf Club claimed that it was regularly engaging with affected participants and also said a multi-million dollar support package was on its way.
“Our emphasis is to support trainers and horse owners to take care of their workers and horses, whilst facilitating the community to keep racing until October 2024,” the Turf Club statement said in part.
“In response to trainers’ requests, we have conveyed to the trainers our commitment to support the racing community, including a multi-million dollar package to help them and their workers to transition to the next phase of their careers, and to ensure horse welfare and the responsible re-homing of the racehorses.”
The statement was not distributed to any other media that we are aware of, which is strange if the Turf Club genuinely wanted the message to be heard loud and clear by its affected trainers (ANZ does have numerous Singapore industry readers, nonetheless).
There’s no turning back for racing in Singapore, the government has made up its mind, but the bureaucrats and Turf Club officials could actually do something meaningful for the jockeys, trainers and their staff – as well as the horses – with genuine financial support and well-considered plans.
As it is, the Turf Club’s statement is just that, hollow words with empty promises carefully scripted by a PR firm who seemingly washed its own hands of the statement as soon as the email was sent. Follow up calls and text messages by this columnist were ignored.
It’s time the trainers, owners and jockeys receive real action, concrete commitments and genuine support to ensure they can have a prosperous future beyond the cessation of Singapore racing, whenever that may be.
The Turf Club and the Singaporean government owes them that, if nothing else.
As for Clements, who has said he’ll be taking an extended break until at least the New Year to assess his options, has given no indication about what’s next for him. I would be betting, however, that in the long-term he won’t be lost to racing.
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Gilgai Farm’s Rick Jamieson has immense faith in Golden Rose and Caulfield Guineas-winning sire Ole Kirk.
Of course, Jamieson bred and retained a share in him when he raced to Group 1 success for Team Hawkes. He is also a shareholder, along with Vinery Stud, now that he’s into his third year at stud in the Hunter Valley.
Ole Kirk, of course, is out of the unraced sister to the Jamieson-bred superstar Black Caviar in Naturale, making her also a half-sister to Ole Kirk’s roster mate All Too Hard, while Victoria’s successful sire Magnus descends from his third dam Scandinavia.
Sadly, the Dorrington Farm-bred and raced Magnus had to be euthanised earlier this week at Widden Victoria at the age of 21.
Gilgai Farm manager Kelly Skillecorn believes Ole Kirk, along with the fine job All Too Hard is doing, can be the stallion to carry on the legacy of the great family, with his first yearlings to hit the sales in 2024.
“We’ve got a draft of nine yearlings going to the Magic Millions in January and five of them are Ole Kirks and they were the first ones that Dane [Robinson] and Barry [Bowditch of Magic Millions] picked when they came to the farm,” Skillecorn told us.
“We’re delighted with Ole Kirk’s yearlings and we’ve backed him this year. We’ve sent 17 mares to him.
“When you think of Magnus and All Too Hard, who have done great jobs, but they are by obscure stallions, and this one is by a proper sire of sires and he’s got everything going for him, Ole Kirk, I would have thought.”
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WA’s RAM Racing syndicate, which scooped the lot in The Quokka with Overpass, last week became part of The Everest, with a group of 50-plus members, friends and hangers on set to takeover Royal Randwick.
The Bjorn Baker-trained Overpass, owned by Darby Racing, will again represent the group of mostly Rockingham-based men and women in The Everest.
Then, thought will turn to the 2024 Western Trilogy. RAM Racing took a slot in all three codes, the Quokka for thoroughbreds, the Nullarbor for standardbreds and the Sandgroper for the greyhounds.
“We did the whole Western Trilogy. We thought that’s what needed to be done for a bunch of battlers to actually get the slot,” Adam Fletcher, one of the group’s managers, told us.
“It took a look of work to organise and everyone on that [management] board were participating to work out our pacing selections, our dog selections and thoroughbred selections. As it turned out, we had a win in The Quokka, we came third in the dog race and I think we finished eighth, ninth or tenth in the pacing race, but the time we had with the owners of all three codes, it was a hell of a lot of fun and we’re looking forward to when that comes around again.”
RAM Racing is expected to be involved in the highly successful Western Trilogy’s second year but “it’s not 100 per cent finalised”.
“I think it’s due in the next four weeks, so the focus is solely on The Everest and we’ll get that one out of the way,” Fletcher said.
“Hopefully we can win that and then we’ll see what’s next for us as a group.”