The First Horse Racing Track in Perak

In 1890, the European elite lived in Batu Gajah, the urban center of the area, where most of them were horse owners and enthusiasts of horse racing. As such, they formed a club called the Kinta Gymkhana Club.

For your information, loyal readers of orangperak.com, the Kinta Gymkhana Club based in Batu Gajah was established in 1890. In 1903, Eric Maxwell, a well-known lawyer at the time, issued a notice to hold a public meeting to discuss the formation of the Ipoh Gymkhana Club.

Returning to the Kinta Gymkhana Club based in Batu Gajah, a British civil engineer named F D Osborne from Gopeng was appointed as the first honorary secretary of the Kinta Gymkhana Club in 1890, the year the club was founded.

Image credit: Ipoh World

The Kinta Gymkhana Club was a club for horse racing enthusiasts and they were very active in Batu Gajah during that era. The Kinta Gymkhana Club also organized the first Kinta race at the Batu Gajah horse racing track from February 17, 1893, to February 19, 1893. Since the organization of that first horse race, the Kinta Gymkhana Club continued to actively manage seven races every day in Batu Gajah. Can you imagine the excitement at that time, when horse racing was often a hot topic of conversation among our society back then?

Batu Gajah Golf Course

In 1903, after the public meeting held to establish the Ipoh Gymkhana Club as mentioned in the second paragraph of this article, horse racing competitions were frequently held in Ipoh and became more popular than the horse racing track in Batu Gajah.

Kinta Golf Club

Unfortunately, after the end of the First World War, the horse racing track in Batu Gajah no longer held a place in the hearts of horse racing fans, and its popularity in Batu Gajah declined. Consequently, the track was converted into a golf course, as we can see its location in Batu Gajah today.