"We have made all the necessary arrangements for this event which will be one of the club’s highlights next season," said SLTC deputy chairman Datuk Richard Cham.

The announcement came as a bit of surprise the club earlier said they need a new racecourse with better facilities and bigger quarantine area to stage international races.

The club members have voted to move to a new site which will be ready in a few years’ time.

Racing associations from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, India, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will be invited for the proposed international race.

There will be special conditions for this event, one of which is that invited must not have won Group 1 or 2 races in their home country.

"This is to give ample chance for horses of quality who are on the rise to be racing here." said Cham. "This is our commitment towards staging an international race which will eventually lead to a Group 1 event and into the world racing championship series," he added.

On the home front, the SLTC has firmly established the Triple Crown Series which offers a total prizemoney of RM3.25 million.

The three races are the RM500,000 Tunku Gold Cup (1,200m), the RM750,000 Selangor Gold Cup (1,600m) and the RM1.5 million Sultan Of Selangor Gold Cup (2,000m). There is a special bonus for any horse who wins all the three races.

The Triple Crown Series was started last year when they inter-changed the distances of the Tunku Gold Cup (originally 2,000m) and the Selangor Gold Cup (1,200m).

XTHEREST scored an upset win in the "new" Tunku Gold Cup while CONFLUENCE captured the Selangor Gold Cup and the Sultan Of Selangor Gold Cup.

There was a further change this year when the distances of the Selangor Gold Cup and the Sultan Of Selangor Gold Cup were inter-changed.

South African galloper MONEY MARKET won the Tunku Gold Cup in January and OPPOSING FORCE returned to his best form to win the Selangor Gold Cup last month.