Flemington racecourse

Flemington racecourse is the home of Australia’s richest race the Melbourne Cup and is arguably Melbourne’s and Australia’s most well known and prestigious racecourse. The racecourse itself is situated in Melbourne suburb Flemington next to the Maribyrnong River, horse racing has taken part in this area of land since 1840.

The Flemington racecourse is made up of 1.27km of Crown land. In 1848 the the racecourse was leased to Victoria Turf Club which merged with Victoria Jockey Club in 1864 to form what is now called the Victorian Racing Club or in short the VRC. In 1871 Victoria Racing Club Act was approved which gave the Victorian Racing Club control of Flemington racecourse.

The first Melbourne Cup to be run was in 1861 which was won by a horse called Archer, you can view our page listing the Melbourne Cup winners.

The racecourse itself can be said to look like a pear (we have made an image of the racecourse below), the full circumference of the racecourse is 2,312 metres with the straight being 450m. The Melbourne Cup is run over 3200m thus runners start in the Straight extension also known as the ‘the Straight Six’ which refers to the 6 furlong (1200m) straight, before making a full completion of the racecourse.

Flemington racecourse comprises of three grandstands and can hold a total of 120,000 people with the biggest attendance ever to the racecourse was on Victoria Derby day in which 129,089 patrons came through the racecourse to see Efficient win the feature race.

The racecourse has a bronze statue of arguably Australia’s most famous racecourse ‘Phar Lap’ which was donated to the club in 1988.

On Melbourne Cup day 2006 (7th November), Flemington racecourse was added to the Australian National Heritage List.

Apart from the Melbourne Cup, Flemington hosts the following Group 1 races at its racecourse throughout the year: