The old Selangor Turf Club race track was established in 1896 off Ampang Road, Kuala Lumpur, on the ground now occupied by the Petronas Twin Towers and KLCC. Races were held here for almost a hundred years with the last race taking place in August 1992 before it moved to the new race course at Serdang.
Throughout the British administration, horse racing was a popular recreation amongst the British and Europeans and in addition to the track in Kuala Lumpur, two other tracks were built in Taiping in 1886, named the Perak Turf Club, and in Penang, called the Penang Turf Club, established in 1864.
The Selangor Turf Club was established by colonial administrator, Sir William George Maxwell, whose application was approved in 1896 by Sir Frank Swettenham who was Resident-General of the Federated Malay States at the time and who was himself a very keen horseman and sportsman.
Land of around 100 acres was set aside by the government off the old Ampang Road which leads to Ampang Street, now Leboh Ampang, and the club was formed from the Selangor Gymkhana Club which had existed for several years. The oval track was just over eight furlongs long and a small attap shed was built at the finishing line.
“The course situated about two miles outside Kuala Lumpur has very few equals in the Far East, and certainly no superior from a scenic point of view, embracing as it does a far-reaching landscape of sombre blue clouded hills, descending to a plain of remarkable fertility relieved by masses of graceful palms and foliage of unusual luxuriance.” (Straits Echo, 13th June, 1903)
According to the Selangor Turf Club’s website the first race meeting was held in March 1896 taking place over two days, each with seven races on the card, with the most prestigious race being the Miner’s Purse with prize money of $1,000 Straits.
By 1906 the membership of the club had grown to over 300 with each member paying a subscription of $15 dollars. When the First World War intervened racing was stopped except for special fund raising events for the war effort. In 1939 the chairman reported a profit of $30,400 and the race, the Selangor Gold Cup, was introduced, a forerunner of the Tunku Gold Cup.
After racing was stopped during WWII people flocked to the course and the 1950s was regarded as the boom period of racing. In 1952 race attendance reached an average of 14,000. A year later the Chairmanship bequethed to Dato’ Sir Clough Thuraisingham, a very keen horseman who owned a large stable of race horses who later became a famous politician in the country.
Under the stewardship of Thuraisingham beginning in 1953, which lasted for 20 years, the Selangor Turf Club went from strength to strength. Many improvements were made to the ground and its facilities including the construction of a grandstand to replace the old attap shed, and the introduction of radio commentary of the races which proved popular.
With the arrival of the modern era, land was at a premium in rapidly developing Kuala Lumpur, and the government and property developers had their sights set on the prime, 100 acre piece of real estate in the middle of the city, and the race track was forced to close in 1992, making way for the creation of a park and the iconic landmark, the Petronas Twin Towers, until 2004, the tallest building in the world.
Malaysia 1786 - 1957 