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IRT hold high-powered talks with Singapore Turf Club about repatriating horses
An estimated 200 thoroughbreds will need to be relocated to other racing jurisdictions or repatriated to Australia when racing ceases in Singapore no later than October next year.
International Racehorse Transport (IRT) has been looking at ways to deal with the massive logistical exercise of moving so many horses in a short space of time while avoiding a potential horse welfare crisis when the sport ends in Lion City after 180 years in 14 months’ time.
IRT’s Australian managing director Chris Burke and operations director Lachlan Ford recently met with Singapore Turf Club officials, including expatriate Australian racing administrator Dayle Brown, where the extent of the horse relocation issues and numbers were laid bare.
“The biggest problem they have is they have limited quarantine space that meets Australia’s requirements, so their quarantine facility currently, which is their old international stables, caters for eight horses at a time to send horses to Australia,” Ford told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“So, we met with the Turf Club about that and raised the concerns of … if they want to run (racing) through until October 2024, then they’ll run into major problems as they can only fit eight horses in there.”
Burke and Ford have also been liaising with Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries (DAFF) and Forestry about the possibility of expanding return quarantine facilities at the Singapore Turf Club to help alleviate the looming logjam by opening up the post-arrival quarantine facilities at Kranji.
If the post-arrival quarantine facility, where horses entering Singapore undertake two weeks quarantine, or another site was approved by Australian authorities it could allow 30 to 40 horses to be exported out of the country at any one time.
It is understood that DAFF will undertake an audit of Singapore’s potential quarantine facilities in the coming months.
Immediately after the Singapore Turf Club’s shock June 5 announcement, confirming that the land in which the Kranji racecourse sits will be reclaimed by the government for development, Malaysian racing clubs, particularly the Selangor Turf Club in Kuala Lumpur, were seen as a likely new home for up to 300 horses.
“There were meetings with the members of the Turf Club, but we also met with NParks [National Parks Board], which is the equivalent of Australia’s Department of Agriculture in Singapore,” Ford said.
“They are very conscious of animal welfare, which is good, and they are very conscious that the Turf Club does the right thing for the horses and if that means they have to keep the Turf Club open for however long after racing finishes there to keep the horses there, they are going to do that.”
Ford revealed about 40 horses had exited Singapore racing this month destined for Malaysia while longer-term Macau could also be a jurisdiction in which Kranji-based horses continue their racing careers.
But as for horses going from Australia to Singapore, it has almost ground to a halt.
“We have two horses going out on July 31 who will go to Singapore – the owner’s Malay – and he said let’s take them to Singapore and race them for the short period they are there and then he’ll send them up to Malaysia after that,” Ford said.
“Everything else is cancelled and is staying in Australia or being sold elsewhere. I would almost say that’s our last shipment we’ll do to Singapore, to be totally honest.”
IRT has received a lot of enquiries from clients about when they will need to make decisions about their horses in order to be able to ship them to other countries, particularly Australia.
“The other interesting one, which has really surprised me actually, has been the amount of enquiries I’m getting now from people with riding horses,” Ford said.
“In Singapore, you’ve got the Bukit Timah Saddle Club, which is on the Turf Club now, and you’ve got the Polo Club and big international equestrian centre.
“A lot of participants in those facilities are saying, ‘hey, how do I get my horses out? What do I need to do?’ and what their query really is suggesting is, ‘if Singapore Turf Club is no longer racing, how do I know what they’re going to do for horses in Singapore full stop?’
“These are purely passionate people who ride horses for fun and they are starting to ask a lot of questions.”
While IRT will have to handle a lot of the logistics of relocating horses, Ford said it was incumbent on the Turf Club to play its role in ensuring the welfare of the horses and the people impacted, primarily trainers, jockeys and staff staff who relied on racing in Singapore to derive an income.
“One of the reasons why Chris and I went there was because we wanted to make sure that the Turf Club was aware of their role in all of this and making sure that it is a seamless transition in horse management and that horse welfare is the top priority,” he said.
“We ship horses all over the world and if this is not handled correctly, it will have implications all around the world.”
Unsurprisingly, visiting affected trainers in Singapore, Ford says there remains a lot of anger and resentment towards the Turf Club for its handling of the matter while owners are also disgruntled.
“I actually had lunch down here [in Melbourne] last week with a guy who has interests in about 12 horses up there with friends and they’re not interested in sending the horses to Malaysia at all,” Ford said.
“He wants to send horses back to Australia, so he’s starting to enquire about doing that sort of thing. There’s a lot of inquiry at the moment, but not a lot of action.”