Famous Flemington racecourse is Victoria’s major racing venue and is located under 10km west of the Melbourne city centre on land adjacent to the Maribyrnong River.
The area was first used for horse racing in 1840 and was first known as Melbourne racecourse and was part of a property named Flemington owned by James Watson and named after his wife’s home in Scotland.
The racecourse was leased to the Victoria Turf Club in 1848.
A merger with the Victoria Jockey Club followed in 1864 to form the Victoria Racing Club, three years after the running of the first Melbourne Cup in 1861.
In 1871 the Victoria Racing Club Act made the VRC trustees of Flemington Racecourse. Flemington racecourse was listed as a heritage site in 2006.
The current Flemington racecourse site covers comprises 1.27 square kilometres of Crownland.
The VRC conducts more than twenty race meetings each year at Flemington.
Easily the most famous worldwide is the four-day Melbourne Cup carnival held around the first week of November. That is dependent on what day the first Tuesday in November falls as that is always the date of the Melbourne Cup.
The Cup carnival at Flemington features the Melbourne Cup – the richest handicap race in the world. It was worth $7,300,000 in 2018.
Among the other seven Group 1 races run Cup week, we see the Victoria Derby, VRC Oaks and the Mackinnon Stakes as the feature race on the other three days of the carnival.
Flemington isn’t just about the Spring carnival which also includes G1 days like Makybe Diva Stakes day in September and Turnbull Stakes in October.
Flemington also hosts a feature carnival in the Autumn when the Group One races include the Lightning Stakes, Newmarket Handicap and Australian Cup.
And the newest addition of mega prizemoney races in Australia includes the All- Star Mile. It will rotate through the three Melbourne Clubs but was first conducted by the VRC in 2019.
Crowds are often capped now for safety and security reason but over 100,000 regularly attended Flemington for the Melbourne Cup and Victoria Derby race meetings.
The Australian record race meeting attendance of 129,089 was set on Victoria Derby Day in 2006.
Construction of a new members grandstand began in 2017 and was finished in time for usage in 2018 Cup week.
Flemington racecourse is a spacious pear-shaped design with a course proper circumference of 2312m that features a sweeping turn from the 1200m to the start of the home straight.
The length of the home straight is 450m and is one of the longest in Australia.
However a unique feature of Flemington racecourse is a straight chute that joins the course proper at the 450m and caters for races over distances from 900m to 1200m.
Races at Flemington are run over distances up to 3200m.
The course also once catered for jumps racing but issues relating to flat tracks and the need for watering means only Sandown now offers metropolitan hurdles and steeples.
Flemington has been the scene of some all-time great performances like Phar Lap’s 1930 rampage winning on all four days of the carnival.
There was also Carbine carrying 66kg to victory in the 1890 Cup and Makybe Diva’s historic three gems in the mid-2000s. The legendary Winx also won two Turnbull Stakes before her last two Cox Plates.
In the Autumn of 2011 we also saw Black Caviar’s carry a strong 58kg for a mare and Mystic Journey create history as the Tasmanian filly won the first $5m All-Star Mile.
Flemington is truly a great race course.
