SINGAPORE,  24 December 2006

Australian pay-TV channel ThoroughVisioN (TVN) has announced that Singapore races on Friday nights is to be shown live and open to betting starting Jan 5.

Saturday and Sunday afternoon racing would be phased in over a period from four to six months.

TVN said it has has joined forces with the Singapore Turf Club and TOTE Tasmania in a three-year exclusive arrangement to bring Singapore racing into Australia.

Punters interested in betting on the Singapore races will need to have a betting account with TOTE Tasmania, and can watch the racing live on TVN.

Singapore races are bound to attract tremendous interest there as the majority of our horses come from that country and a few of their top trainers ply their trade at Kranji including Melbourne Cup winning trainer John Meagher.

The "export" of Singapore races will follow right on the heels of Malaysian races which are now beamed to the Macau Jockey Club (MJC) on weekends.

However, MJC has not been able to take in some of the better races since the telecast began earlier this month because their tote operation limits betting to 14 horses.

In Malaysia, the three clubs allow a maximum field of 16 runners for the Cup races. The Perak Turf Club caters for a maximum field of 20 runners for races over the 1100m straight course.

MJC will thus miss out on the RM1.35 million Yang Di Pertua Negeri Gold Cup, the richest race of the Malaysian racing calendar, next Sunday when 16 runners are expected to contest the 2200m handicap.