February 4, 2015

Sibu : Horse Tickets and Sarawak Turf Club

Sibu had a Race Course Road but some thirty years ago, it was renamed Jalan Awang Ramli Amit . However the locals continued to call the road by the former name for many years. I am sure the older people still think of the road as Race Course Road, in English and Pou Mah Duo in Foochow.

And I used to wonder if there was ever a real race course there. However my guess is after the First Rajah, James Brooke built the fort (Fort Brooke), he named the road from the fort to Sibu bazaar, Race Course Road.

Charkes Brooke being a keen horse man and a horse racer, probably also hoped that Sibu would prosper and horses would be reared by the local Chinese and Malay population. He enjoyed horse riding and had lost an eye during one of his riding excursions in England.

However, the Kuching Turf Club was only established after his death, in 1924.

The prospects of horse racing in Sibu were not that good. But some how the name got stuck.

Having said all that, in actual fact, the Sarawak Radio in the 50's and 60's used to broadcast the races and men would be glued to the radio to listen to the results. It was quite interesting to listen to the radio commentators who were really good over the radio. At times I wonder how those not educated in English would understand the English commentators. I suppose they just enjoyed the tones of the excitement in the voice of the commentator.




Anyway, one of my favourite memories of Horse Racing was related to the Singh who sold lottery tickets to every one in Sibu and especially to my father. He would come around the coffee shop and when he saw my father, he would say, "Mr.Chang, win, win win..."

He was a very pleasant man and most people would buy from him, two at least at one time. I suppose buying two would increase the chances of winning.

Some how I always associated horse racing with this Mr. Singh. My father never won any lottery and towards the last years of his life,he lived a very low profile life, preferring to read, doodle, and draw with an art pencil.

And he also said that he had to avoid Mr. Singh!! We thought it was quite easy because it was easy to see Mr. Singh from a distance in the small town of Sibu. It was quite humourous actually.



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But being young I did not understand anything about horse racing, the Sarawak Turf Club in Kuching, etc.. And I did not know that it was a kind of gambling.

Lottery tickets are called "Horse Tickets" in Foochow.

Today many Chinese calendars still print the horse racing days (Ipoh, KL,etc)

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