Parranda wins S’pore’s richest horse race, as organisers see growth here

SINGAPORE — United States bred star mare Parranda lived up to her top billing when Christophe Soumillon rode her two-and-a-quarter lengths clear of the chasing pack to take the S$3.05 million China Equine Cultural Festival (CECF) Singapore Cup at Kranji yesterday.

But it was Hugh Bowman’s Summer Surprise that dashed ahead of the pack at the start and led most of the 1,800m length at the Singapore Racecourse before losing pace in the final 300m.

It was the cue for Soumillon to pull all the stops off Parranda to sail comfortably past the finish ahead of Craig Newitt’s Zululand, which edged Manoel Nunes Ming Zhi Cosmos by a nose.

Billed as the richest in Singapore’s racing history, it attracted 29 horse owners from China who are racing their prize steeds overseas for the first time. They are prominent professionals and businessmen in industries ranging from film production to mining, said China Horse Club (CHC) general manager Eden Harrington.

He told TODAY horses bred for racing is a new phenomenon in China and the 18-month old club is helping its members, most of whom are new to racing, understand the virtues connected to horse ownership.

To push this, CHC organises the CECF around the race to cater to the social, cultural and business needs.

“The idea with the CECF Singapore Cup was to create a platform where we can promote horse ownership in China, new owners who we can elevate as heroes,” said Harrington. “We’ve done that, it has happened. Beyond this we are working towards having more events in Singapore.”

He added that part of this is for CHC, the brainchild of Malaysian businessman Teo Ah Khing, to promote business and cultural opportunities for its members in Singapore.

During the two-day event, the CECF Singapore Cup also raised S$250,000 for the Community Chest, and S$50,000 each for disabled horse riders and paralympians.

After holding two such events in China, where betting is illegal, Harrington said CHC chose Singapore and is committed for another two years because of cultural similarities.

“Long term, we certainly hope the next stage of CECF in Singapore is to have an evolution in work comfortably with public and private enterprise,” he said.

“We want to grow this event (for) business opportunities and tourism because Singapore is a wonderful place and we want to leverage on that.” Ian De Cotta