Some of racing’s greatest names, like Lester Piggott and Pat Eddery, have graced Penang Turf Club’s racetrack, but last Saturday’s meeting ended more than 160 years of history and consigned the picturesque venue to the growing list of lost racecourses.
Based in the island’s capital George Town, the Club was established in 1864, making it Malaysia’s oldest horse racing institution. The current racecourse, in Batu Gantong, had been the site of horse racing since 1939.
Now, only two major racetracks remain in Malaysia: the Selangor Turf Club in Kuala Lumpur and the Perak Turf Club in Ipoh. There is also a track in Kuching, Sarawak, on the island of Borneo.
While Penang may not belong in the same domain as Sha Tin, Newmarket or Flemington, it has a storied history in its own right.
Not only have jockeys like Eddery and Piggott ridden at the track over the decades but the first ever winner of the Hong Kong Cup, Colonial Chief, was a stakes winner at Penang. Less than 30 years ago, local star Peak Of Perfection was running at Penang only weeks after finishing behind Jezabeel in the Melbourne Cup. As recently as 12 years ago, top sprinters Captain Obvious and Mr Big won at Penang before tackling the world stage.
Penang was the second Club that had been established during the British Malaya colonial era to close in the last 12 months. Last year, the Singapore Turf Club wrapped up racing in the Lion City after more than 180 years and only a quarter of a century after the industry shifted from Bukit Timah, right in the heart of Singapore’s central region, to Kranji on its northern outskirts.
Add in the closure of Macau’s Taipa Racecourse last year and the list of former racetracks worldwide is growing rapidly. While Rosehill, in Sydney’s west, narrowly avoided joining that list after an Australian Turf Club vote last week, it is one of the few that has been saved after closure has been touted.
Among those to shut down in the last 20 years include top-level racecourses like Hollywood Park, Arlington Park, Suffolk Downs, Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows in the United States; Cheltenham Park and Victoria Park in Australia; Clairwood and Newmarket in South Africa; Maisons-Laffitte in France; and Frankfurt in Germany.
New Zealand’s Avondale, where the great Bonecrusher debuted and which has been graced by international stars like Balmerino, Horlicks and Rough Habit, will close next year. Aqueduct in New York City and Laurel Park, just outside Washington D.C., will both close within the next two years.
Those sites have been repurposed in many ways – sometimes for housing and sometimes for more creative uses.
Hollywood Park now hosts SoFi Stadium, one of the world’s premier arenas which hosted the Super Bowl in 2022. It will do so again in 2027, while it will stage a number of FIFA World Cup matches next year as well as the opening ceremony and the swimming for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
A similar plan was touted for Arlington Park as the Chicago Bears NFL franchise bought the land, but there is currently an impasse with the Illinois state legislature and so the land sits barren.
There are signs of racing heritage in so many of the world’s biggest cities and countries – sometimes unexpectedly.
For instance, anyone who has flown into Sydney has come through the suburb of Mascot, in which the city’s airport is located. The suburb was originally named Ascot after a racecourse which operated in its vicinity – local residents confirmed the name Ascot in a referendum in 1911, but postal authorities wanted a name which differed from one which was already so widely in use both in Australia and the UK. Hence an M was added and Ascot became Mascot.
Another example is the former South African racecourse of Newmarket, in the town of Alberton on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
These days, there is little trace of the former track. However, alongside roads named for the likes of Nelson Mandela, there are roads named after Ascot, Doncaster, Epsom and Goodwood.
Perhaps we will soon see Jalan Piggott or Jalan Eddery – Piggott Street or Eddery Street – on the site of the old Penang Turf Club, with plans to subdivide the land and rezone it as a commercial and mixed development area. ∎
