DOWN MEMORY LANE: OLD SELANGOR TURF CLUB AMPANG

You're looking at the old Selangor Turf Club at Ampang Road — that's 100% where KLCC / Petronas Twin Towers is today.

That photo is from the 1970s/80s. You can see the old Holiday Inn on Jalan Pinang and the tall tower with Jawi writing — that was the Mimaland/KL Hilton area. The track in front is the racecourse.

Here's the history of that exact site before KLCC:

The Selangor Turf Club (1896 - 1992)

1. Founded in March 1896

Started as the Selangor Gymkhana Club in the early 1890s, then renamed the Selangor Turf Club in 1896. It was one of the oldest horse racing clubs in Malaysia.

2. For nearly a century, this was KL's premier sporting landmark.

For almost 100 years, races were conducted at Ampang Road, which is today the site of the Petronas Twin Towers. The track was about 40 hectares / 100 acres, bordered by Jalan Ampang.

The centrepiece of the area was the original site of the Selangor Turf Club, with many houses constructed around the site to capitalise on views of the racing course. It was the place to be seen in colonial and post-independence KL — British officers, Malay royalty, and towkays all came.

In the photo you can see the huge crowd — race days were a major social event.

3. Why it moved

By the late 1970s/80s, traffic congestion around Ampang and KL's expansion north made the central location unsustainable. The government wanted a new iconic development.

4. End of an era: 

• 1988: The Selangor Turf Club site and adjoining residential parcels were sold to be cleared away for the KLCC project
• August 1992: Last race held at Ampang Road — after almost a century of racing there
• 1993: Club relocated to its present site in Serdang / Seri Kembangan, where it still operates today as one of only 3 turf clubs in Malaysia

5. What happened next?

The old track was demolished on 1 March 1997 to make way for the Petronas Twin Towers project. The KLCC masterplan was conceived as a "city within a city" on the former grounds of the Selangor Turf Club — Towers completed in 1998, Suria KLCC, KLCC Park designed by Roberto Burle Marx, convention centre, etc.

So before you had Twin Towers, you had horses thundering down that straight. The area you're seeing in the photo is now roughly between the Twin Towers and KLCC Park.

Hj Zulheimy Maamor

24 September 2026: 4:02 a.m.