From Jan 1, the first day of the new Singapore racing season, the prize money for non-feature races will generally be lower for some of the classes of races.
The biggest decrease will come from the premium events - Class 1 and Kranji Stakes A - which will see a $25,000 drop to $100,000. Class 2 and Kranji Stakes B races will carry $15,000 less in stakes to $85,000, while Class 3 and Kranji Stakes C, as well as Restricted Maiden and Novice events, will drop by $10,000 to $70,000 and $75,000 respectively.
Class 4, which had Premier and Non-Premier Divisions with stakes of $60,000 and $45,000 respectively, will be standardised at $50,000.
The stakes for Kranji Stakes D and Maiden/Open Maiden will not be affected. They will still carry prize money of $38,000 and $20,000 respectively.
The only class to benefit from the restructuring is the cellar grade, Class 5, which will see a $10,000 hike to $30,000.
The Singapore Turf Club (STC) said the increase is to help owners alleviate the cost of maintaining these horses.
But to help fund the increase in prize money for the Class 5 races, the prize money of races in Classes 1, 2 and 3 and Restricted Maiden/Novice would be adjusted accordingly.
The club added that, notwithstanding the changes, it believes that the prize monies on offer in Singapore are still attractive and compare favourably against prize monies in many racing countries.
The restructuring of the prize money, said the club, is carried out after taking into consideration feedback from owners and trainers.
Michael Clements, president of the Association of Racehorse Trainers of Singapore, said its association's members acknowledge that the prize money to training fee ratio available to race horse owners in Singapore is still favourable compared to most of the other horse racing centres around the world.
"All trainers here are committed to continuing to working closely and in a positive manner with the club in 2019 and beyond, to produce growth in our industry, and to maintain Singapore as one of the top global horse racing centres," he added.
Besides the prize money restructuring, the STC also made several other announcements.
Two feature races will be discontinued in 2019, namely the Group 1 Patron's Bowl and the Group 3 Garden City Trophy.
Without the Patron's Bowl, the Singapore Four-Year-Old Challenge will also be discontinued as retaining the series would require one of the remaining feature races to be converted to a race restricted to only four-year-olds. This would reduce the opportunities for horses in other age groups.
Similarly, the discontinuation of the Garden City Trophy will require the Merlion Trophy to be programmed in the second half of the year to cater for sprinters.
As such, the Singapore Sprint Series will be discontinued as well.
The Singapore Three-Year-Old Challenge (comprising Singapore Three-Year-Old Sprint, Singapore Three-Year-Old Classic and Singapore Guineas) and the Singapore Triple Crown (comprising the Raffles Cup, Queen Elizabeth II Cup and Singapore Gold Cup) will be retained.
Due to the restructuring of racing in Singapore and the transfer of wagering operations on horse racing to Singapore Pools, the STC will keep the International Races scheduled for May 25 on hold.
However, similar to this year, the Kranji Mile will remain as an invitational race with prize money of $1.5 million. The Lion City Cup will remain as Singapore Group 1 race restricted to Singapore horses only with prize money of $1 million.
The prize monies of the remaining feature races are unchanged but will be reviewed in mid-2019.
However, with effect from Jan 1, the entry fees collected for feature races will no longer be added to the prize monies of the respective feature races.
The STC will continue to run about 800 races over 87 race meetings in 2019. Tuesday night race meetings will be discontinued, but there will be three Saturday twilight meetings with the first race at about 4pm. These Saturday twilight meetings will be held on May 25, June 1 and June 15.
Friday's South Africa results
RACE 1
1st 1 Rebel Wilson ($8-$6)
2nd 5 Desert Wanderer ($6)
3rd 8 Neverletugo ($28)
4th 9 Sport Chic
Forecast $14
Place Forecast (1-5) $6, (1-8) $15, (5-8) $36
Tierce $255
Trio $66
Quartet $2,086, ($1,828 jackpot carried forward to next race)
Scratching: 6 Tree Of Life
RACE 2
1st 9 Casa De Var ($46-$17)
2nd 5 Flame Of Fire ($6)
3rd 7 Nicole ($19)
4th 10 Silva Key
Forecast $39
Place Forecast (5-9) $13, (7-9) $47, (5-7) $37
Tierce $1,370
Trio $325
Quartet No winner ($2,740 carried forward)
RACE 3
1st 3 Believethisbeauty ($7-$6)
2nd 11 Angkor ($11)
3rd 2 Arikara ($14)
4th 9 Princess Elsa
Forecast $17
Place Forecast (3-11) $8, (2-3) $9, (2-11) $30
Tierce $106
Trio $65
Quartet $889
RACE 4
1st 4 Mischievous Green ($12-$6)
2nd 6 Peking Tyson ($28)
3rd 1 Lets Be Frank ($9)
4th 9 Chapel Cleeve
Forecast $51
Place Forecast (4-6) $21, (1-4) $6, (1-6) $27
Tierce $362
Trio $79
Quartet No winner ($416 carried forward)
Scratching: 3 In The Navy
RACE 5
1st 5 Fantasy Art ($31-$11)
2nd 4 Jika ($8)
3rd 1 Silver Blade (No 3rd dividend)
4th 7 Leadman
Forecast $14
Place Forecast Refund
Tierce $79
Trio $15
Quartet $333
Scratchings: 6 Wheel Of Time, 8 Tombodi
RACE 6
1st 5 Let It Flow ($77-$17)
2nd 2 Studio Blues ($6)
3rd 4 Fools Garden ($18)
4th 9 Quakeshake
Forecast $48
Place Forecast (2-5) $16, (4-5) $34, (2-4) $11
Tierce $1,236
Trio $103
Quartet No winner ($870 carried forward)
Scratching: 8 Green Sea
RACE 7
1st 8 African Messiah ($27-$8)
2nd 9 Apoc ($12)
3rd 2 Aranjuez ($19)
4th 7 Wemibono
Forecast $43
Place Forecast (8-9) $9, (2-8) $23, (2-9) $31
Tierce $1,000
Trio $214
Quartet No winner ($1,466 carried forward)
Scratching: Seattle Spell
RACE 8
1st 4 Sao Paulo ($33-$11)
2nd 8 Sea Bean ($16)
3rd 2 Raven Girl ($8)
4th 9 Rocksette
Forecast $68
Place Forecast (4-8) $23, (2-4) $16, (2-8) $26
Tierce $993
Trio $202 Quartet $1,548
