I recently shared a photo an old friend, Chris Joseph, sent to me of us receiving prizes at the Penang Turf Club. It was the last amateur race day of the Malayan Amateur Racing Association’s 1989 season. I received the champion jockey trophy, while Chris won the owner of the best performed horse that season, a big NZ-bred called Blue Blood.
The photo garnered quite a bit of attention on Facebook and Instagram, something I hadn’t expected. I realised that many people didn’t know I had raced. It was actually the first bit of competitive riding I ever did, before I ever played polo, or even pony clubbed.
I started riding at the SAF Saddle Club at 150 Mount Pleasant Road in around 1968. The club later became the Singapore Civil Service Recreational Sports Saddle Club. There were about 20 ex-racehorses there. When I found out I could ride there, I immediately got my father to join the club. As a civil servant, he could become a member, and for the princely sum of $5.00 a month, I could ride those Thoroughbreds as many times as I wished.
Members used to ride in amateur races on Pro/Am racedays at the turf clubs in Singapore and Malaysia, earning a subsidy for the club. I got a license as soon as I turned 15, which was the minimum age at the time. It was later changed to 18, and for a year or two, I held a license though I was actually under the new minimum age.
I made my debut when I was 15 years and two months old. I took a barrier test on an ex racehorse called Dandy. We jumped out of the starting stalls late but stayed straight enough to pass. Don Donaldson of the Bukit Timah Saddle Club very kindly let me ride an old horse called Fury for my walk up start test. Fury bolted round the sand track, but again, he was fairly straight, and I didn’t fall off, so the stewards gave me a license.
My parents were extraordinarily blasé about my wanting to race ride. My argument was that racing was in my mother’s blood. My mother’s father and two brothers had been automobile racing drivers, racing in the Singapore Grand Prix. I argued that horse racing was just another type of racing. I was allowed to follow my interest.
I saved enough money to buy extra feed for an exorbitant $200 a month, so that my chosen first ride, Easy Change would be well fed for the races.
The day before my scheduled race, I was given a catch ride in the 400 m scurry on a polo pony called Begum. It was actually my first ride. We finished dead last.
I had entered Easy Change for a Class 2, 1200m race the next day. I made the catch weight of 11 st 10 lbs easily and I even had to use a 1 1/2 stone saddle to help make up the weight. Always a slow starter, Easy Change was last out of the gates but we stole a run on the rails and came home well. There was no catching Joseph Phun on Gonzalez, but we finished second, a decent result.
That began a racing career that saw me ride in over 200 races. I rode for 20 seasons and finally hung up my clarino race boots and lycra silks in 1994. I rode about 200 races, winning 30 of them. A strike rate of 15% is more than respectable, and I was champion jockey on one occasion.
Anyone who has ridden short will know the burn in your quadriceps as you stand in the saddle. It was quite normal to lose a kilogram of sweat each race. If you think you are fit, you will never know what real fitness means till you ride six races in a day, and fight out a finish in an 1800 m race in your last ride of the day.
My ears would ring with exhaustion after a good race day, but there is nothing to beat the exhilaration of riding winners in front of 30,000 screaming punters as I did at the Bukit Timah racecourse in Singapore. I loved this beautiful racecourse, and though I also rode some memorable winners in Penang, Ipoh, and Ampang, Bukit Timah will always be my favourite.
I was also picked to ride a race of horse versus car, which made the front page of the Straits Times. This was part of a 100th year celebration of the Singapore Polo Club. We won easily, twice, but that’s another story.
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