The club was initially limited to European residents, but with the increasing popularity of horse racing, membership was expanded to include Ceylonese.

In 1920 an island-wide open tennis tournament for which the best players from Colombo and elsewhere were able to enter, became a regular annual feature on the race and sports program of the Galle Gymkhana Club.

In 1956 the government banned gambling and betting in the country,[7] which resulted in the subsequent closure of the Manning racecourse.

The racecourse has since been converted into a children's playground, opened by the Lions Club of Galle and named after Mahendran Amarasooriya.

This, however, occurred with some controversy, with allegations that the club contravened local traffic laws, prohibiting heavy vehicles entering into the heritage Galle fort area.