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Scone racecourse is renowned as the capital of the Australian thoroughbred breeding industry with Scone Race Club enjoying a high profile position as a leader of country racing. The modern Scone racecourse at Satur, 4km west of the Scone town centre, was opened in 1994 to replace the old White Park course that had served the Scone Race Club since it was founded in 1944. Scone racecourse, 300km from Sydney at the top of the Hunter Valley, is located opposite Scone Airport and hosts one of the biggest two-day racing carnivals in country racing each May featuring the Scone Cup, Dark Jewel Classic, Scone Guineas and several other black type races.
The Scone Cup was first run in 1947 and became a Listed Race in 2006. The Dark Jewel Classic was first run in 1996 and is the only Group 3 race conducted by a country race club in NSW. Scone Race Club receive massive support from the leading Hunter Valley thoroughbred studs and other racing and breeding entities, enabling the club to offer more than $1 million prizemoney over its two-day May carnival. The carnival features a stand-alone Saturday meeting in place of a Sydney metropolitan fixture. Scone Race Club conducts 16 race meetings per year with Sydney, Newcastle and provincial stables always represented. Scone racecourse is a symmetrical oval with a circumference of 1902 metres and a long home straight of 400 metres. The average track width is 24 metres and there is a downhill slope of almost 2.5 metres along the back straight. The course has starting chutes for races over 1100 metres and up to 1700m. The 1100m chute provides a straight run of 750 metres to the home turn while the 1700m chute gives runners a straight run along the back straight of more than 600 metres to the 900m turn. Scone racecourse is also a major training centre featuring a barrier trial grass track, fast work track and a sand track.
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