Mr Lim currently employs 15 workers to manage about 30 horses under his care, and some of the horses were imported recently by their owners, he said. His stables help owners acquire horses, as well as to train and care for them for a monthly maintenance fee of about S$4,000 (US$3,000) each.
Mr Lim told CNA that he has already had horse owners text him to “take the horse”, saying that they will not pay for their maintenance anymore.
“We are not talking about cars, we’re talking about live animals,” he said of the 700 horses at the club.
They are also concerned about their staff and livelihoods. At a press conference on Monday, the authorities said that about 350 employees from the Singapore Turf Club will be retrenched, and that they will be given help to reskill and with job placement.
But it is not so clear what support, if any, will be provided to the racehorse trainers and their employees, said Mr Clements. He estimates the number of people in the industry affected to be about 700.
“They haven’t really given a lot of thought to all the other players and stakeholders,” he said.
The horse trainers and other industry players held an emergency meeting on Tuesday to examine all these issues and said that the association will issue a statement soon.
“The concern now is that (the industry) may well collapse before the end of October,” said Mr Clements. “The morale of everybody after today’s announcement is so low.”
Ms Jerlyn Seow, 29, a jockey at Stephen Crutchley Racing Stable, said that she felt “nauseous” when she heard the news.
One of the rare females and millennials in the industry, Ms Seow has had a passion for horse racing since young. She has been training around 2016 to be a jockey and got her racing licence in 2019.
“I felt I was living my dream but now it’s shattered,” she said. “Why does the government want to close this historic industry, when there isn’t much recreation or entertainment in Singapore? It’s a mistake.”