The unique suburban Moonee Valley racecourse is located 6m north west of the Melbourne CBD at Moonee Ponds and is the home of the Moonee Valley Racing Club.
Moonee Valley racecourse was established in 1883 by William Sam Cox, who purchased the land from John F Feehan. These two gentlemen had two of Moonee Valley’s most famous races – the WS Cox Plate and JF Feehan Stakes - named in their honour although the race name after Feehan has since changed.
William Samuel Cox became the first secretary of the Moonee Valley Racing Club and was recognised as the founder of the club in 1922 when the Moonee Valley Racing Club inaugurated Australasia's most famous weight-for-age race, the WS Cox Plate.
Moonee Valley racecourse is one of the smallest metropolitan courses in Australia with a rectangular circumference of only 1805m and a short home straight of only 173m.
Moonee Valley’s design and the close proximity of the crowd makes for exciting racing. Races are run over distances from 1000m to 3000m.
A long chute dissects the course for races over 1000m and joins the course proper at the 500m. Another short chute also caters for the start of races over 1200m.
Most races see horses start their runs after negotiating the 800m turn (past the old school) as it is a big advantage to be close to the lead entering the short home straight.
Moonee Valley became Melbourne’s major venue for harness racing in the 1970s when an 800m track was built inside the turf course proper. Harness racing at Moonee Valley ceased in 2010 with the opening of the Melton harness racing complex.
Moonee Valley Racing Club has been responsible for the introduction of several innovations that are now common place in Australian racing. They include the construction of Australia’s first Strathayr all-weather course proper which is a turf surface built on a sand/mesh base and ensures few meetings are run on heavy tracks.
Moonee Valley was also the first metropolitan race club in Australia to introduce night racing in 1998.
Moonee Valley Racing Club conducts day and night race meetings each season. The night racing season runs from September to April with a feature race conducted on many of those nights.
Moonee Valley Racing Club has announced a $150 million redevelopment of the racecourse. The plans will see changes to the course proper design, a 90 degree turn of the course and the relocation of existing grandstands to make way for commercial and residential development.
The WS Cox Plate is the main race held at Moonee Valley over 2040m. It is known as the WFA Championship of Australasia. Most of the all-time greats have won it since its first running in 1922.
They include Phar Lap, Chatham, Ajax, Tranquil Star, Flight, Rising Fast, Tulloch, Tobin Bronze, Gunsynd, Kingston Town, Bonecrusher, Octagonal, Might And Power, Sunline, Northerly, Makybe Diva and So You Think.
However history will surely show the greatest of them all is Winx having won four in a row from 2015 to 2018 – breaking Moonee Valley track records and winning margins amongst them.
The other Group 1 races at this track are all sprints – the Moir Stakes, Manikato Stakes and William Reid Stakes.
