Overview
The Flemington Racecourse site comprises 1.27 square kilometres of Crown land. The course was originally leased to the Victoria Turf Club in 1848, which merged with the Victoria Jockey Club in 1864 to form the Victoria Racing Club. The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861. In 1871 the Victoria Racing Club Act was passed, giving the VRC legal control over Flemington Racecourse.
The racecourse is shaped not unlike a pear, and boasts a six-furlong (1,200 m) straight known as 'the Straight Six.' The track has a circumference of 2,312 metres and a final straight of 450 metres for race distances over 1,200 metres. Races are run in an anti-clockwise direction.
The course has a crowd capacity of over 120,000 and contains three grandstands. The biggest ever attendance was on VRC Derby Day in 2006 when 129,089 people saw Efficient win the VRC Derby. The racecourse has undergone a facelift in recent years, with the opening of a new $45 million grandstand in 2000. It also contains a bronze statue of the famous racehorse Phar Lap, which was donated to the Club as part of Australia's bicentenary celebrations in 1988. The Hill Stand, built in 1977, houses the artist Harold Freedman's seven panel mural which traces the History of Racing. The work was commissioned to mark the Australian bicentenary in 1988.
Flemington Racecourse was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 7 November 2006, announced during the 2006 Melbourne Cup.
The site is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.
Flemington Racecourse today hosts many of Australia's top races, including the Melbourne Cup, VRC Derby, VRC Oaks, MacKinnon Stakes, Newmarket Handicap, Australian Cup and Lightning Stakes.
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