One of the greatest trainers in the history of racing in south-east Asia, Malcom Thwaites has relinquished his licence after 43 years as a trainer.
Starting his training career in America in 1980, where he trained his first winner, Thwaites subsequently transitioned to training in Canada before making his first foray into Malaysia in 1986. In 1987, Malcolm celebrated his first Malaysian Group 1 winner, Nostradamus, a horse he also owned. Just a year later, in 1987, he trained Trend Defy to victory in the Singapore Gold Cup, a race he would later go on to win six times with Navajo II (1993), Zatopek II (1996), Lucky Treasure (1997), Three Crowns (1998), Zirna (2003).
On the Singapore-Malaysia racing circuit, Thwaites won every major race on the calendar, most of them many times. He won the inaugural Singapore Airlines Group One International Cup (2000m) at Kranji in 2000, with Ouzo. Back then, it was a true international Group One, with the runner-up being Sha Tin 2000m course-record holder at the time, Jim And Tonic. After being in Singapore for a number of years Malcolm moved again to Macau in 2003, where he plied his trade for a number of years, before eventually finding his way back to Malaysia.
The 78-year-old goes down in history as one of the greats alongside other history-making trainers Laurie Laxon (nine premierships), Ivan Allan (seven premierships and subsequently three in Hong Kong), Teh Choon Beng (nine premierships).
