The Singapore Turf Club is speeding up the process of restoring its international status by elevating the Group 1 Kranji Mile over 1600 metres to invitational status this May. The Kranji Mile will run on Sunday, 20 May 2018 and will serve as springboard to its launch as an international race next year. As an Invitational Race, the prizemoney of the Kranji Mile will be increased from $1 million to $1.5 million and four international horses will be invited to participate in the race.

With the prizemoney of $1.5 million, the Kranji Mile will be the richest race in Singapore in 2018. In addition to the higher prizemoney, the Singapore Turf Club will also pay bonuses to the owners of Singapore-based horses in the race, with the first Singapore horse past the post eligible to receive $100,000 in bonus and second Singapore horse past the post eligible to receive $50,000.

Singapore Turf Club’s President and Chief Executive Mr Chong Boo Ching hopes that these initiatives can create more excitement amongst racing fans and connections. “We are exhilarated to put Singapore racing back on the world map and believe the way to do so is to offer better incentives and bigger prizemoney to attract the world’s top horses, owners, trainers and jockeys to the Singapore Racecourse. This year’s Kranji Mile will be a window into the international races in 2019 to drum up early interest and anticipation among the local and international racing communities. It is an exciting step forward in Singapore Turf Club’s plan to uplift the quality of Singapore racing.”

As announced in September 2017, one of the major initiatives to revitalise the Singapore racing industry is to reintroduce two international races in 2019. To this end, the Group 1 Kranji Mile (1600m) and the Group 1 Lion City Cup (1200m) will be converted to international races in 2019 with the Kranji Mile carrying prizemoney of S$3 million and the Lion City Cup carrying prizemoney of S$1.35 million.

The Singapore Turf Club is confident that its initiative to stage international races again will enable us to enhance our existing ties with international racing connections, as well as attract racing and sports fans from all over the world to Singapore for the premier horse racing event in the Southeast Asian region, come May 2019.