KUALA LUMPUR:  Sep 12, 2013

The days of Malaysian turf clubs staging four-day meetings over two weekends are practically over.

In the racing calendar for 2014 released today, only one four-day meeting is scheduled for the new season at the Perak Turf Club in July.

There will be seven occasions when a turf club stages three-day meeting over two weekends, while most meetings will be over two days.

And there will be plenty of shared weekends of racing when a club stages a meeting on Saturday and another on Sunday.

It is not clear right now if these one-day meetings are for home based horses or open to all which will definitely stretch the resources of the trainers as they will need to have two teams in two different places at the same time.

At the same there will be a mad rush to get to the other venue at the conclusion of the races on a Saturday for jockeys, trainers and officials.

Whatever it is, racing in Malaysia will not be the same again. Dwindling attendances and turnover in recent years have seen to that.