The Singapore Turf Club (SNTC) will revised downwards prizemoney for most non-feature races and discontinue two feature races in the 2019 racing season.

SNTC said in a release that the restructuring of the prizemoney is carried out after taking into consideration feedback from owners and trainers.

The Club will no longer hold Class 4 Premier races and the prizemoney for all Class 4 races will be standardised at $50,000.

The prizemoney for Class 5 races will be increased to $30,000 to help owners alleviate the cost of maintaining these horses. To help fund the 50% increase in prizemoney for the Class 5 races, the prizemoney of races in Classes 1, 2 and 3 and Restricted Maiden/Novice will be adjusted accordingly as indicated in the above table.

Notwithstanding the changes, the Club believes that the prizemonies on offer in Singapore are still attractive and compare favourably against prizemonies in many racing countries.

Two Feature races will be discontinued in 2019, namely the Group 1 Patron’s Bowl and the Group 3 Garden City Trophy.

Without the Patron’s Bowl, the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge will also be discontinued as retaining the Series would require one of the remaining feature races to be converted to a race restricted to 4 years old only. This would reduce the opportunities for horses in other age groups.

Similarly, the discontinuation of the Garden City Trophy will require the Merlion Trophy to be programmed in the second half of the year to cater for sprinters and as such, the Singapore Sprint Series will be discontinued as well.

The Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge (comprising Singapore 3YO Sprint, Singapore 3YO Classic and Singapore Guineas) and the Singapore Triple Crown (comprising the Raffles Cup, Queen Elizabeth II Cup and Singapore Gold Cup) will be retained.

Due to the restructuring of racing in Singapore and the transfer of wagering operations on horse racing to Singapore Pools, the Club will keep the international races scheduled for 25 May 2019 on hold. However, similar to this year, the Kranji Mile will remain as an invitational race with prizemoney of $1.5 million. The Lion City Cup will remain as Singapore Group 1 race restricted to Singapore horses only with prizemoney of $1 million.

The prizemonies of the remaining feature races are unchanged but will be reviewed in mid-2019. However, with effect from Jan 1, the entry fees collected for feature races will no longer be added to the prizemonies of the respective feature races.