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A NEW Victorian racing year commences on 1 August, and it will be one with a massive upgrade at Sportingbet Park, Sandown.
The Premier of Victoria and Minister for Racing Dr Denis Napthine has announced a $3.2 million upgrade to bring Sportingbet Park, Sandown back to top condition.
Dr Napthine said the replacement of the course proper would ensure that Sportingbet Park, Sandown continued to be a premium metropolitan venue for thoroughbred racing.
The current Sandown Racecourse opened on 19 June 1965 before a crowd of 52,379. A week earlier, more than 20,000 turned up to a free open day to inspect the only metropolitan racecourse in Australia opened in the 20th century.
The course underwent a large redevelopment in the 1980s and now, almost 30 years later, it is overdue for an upgrade to restore the consistent racing surface of both the Lakeside and Hillside tracks.
In 2002, the track had a partial redevelopment with the introduction of the Lakeside and Hillside tracks making Sportingbet Park, Sandown the only metropolitan course with dual tracks.
“With Sandown conducting up to 30 race meetings each year, this upgrade will re-establish Sandown Racecourse as a first class track and restore confidence in the course’s racing conditions,” Dr Napthine added.
With a new high quality racing surface, Sportingbet Park, Sandown will provide Victoria’s racing industry with another venue to conduct trials for both flat and jumps racing.
The vital project for the Melbourne Racing Club will provide a boost for East Gippsland with the turf being grown at Lilydale Turf’s farm at Lindenow South, near Bairnsdale.
The Victorian Government has allocated $500,000 for the project through the Victorian Racing Industry Fund. The Melbourne Racing Club will be contributing $1.6 million and Racing Victoria is proving a further $1.1 million towards the project.
Dr Napthine said the multi-million dollar upgrade was a vote of confidence in the importance of Sportingbet Park, Sandown.
“Sandown is the home of jumps racing in Melbourne and a major metropolitan racing venue, and it hosts a number of key events each year including the Grand Nationals and the Sandown Classic, which this year will be run at Caulfield due to the turf works,” thhe premier added.
The works at Sportingbet Park, Sandown are expected to commence in September with the laying of the turf scheduled for November this year and racing is set to resume in early 2014.
Despite a break of about five months only two less meetings will be conducted at Sportingbet Park, Sandown in the 2013-2014 season, with 28 scheduled race days, and once again free admission at all 22 Wednesday meetings are on offer.
There will be four meetings in August with the first on Wednesday 7 August and the rescheduled Australian Hurdle and Steeple Day will be conducted on Wednesday, 28 August, which will be the final meeting prior to the upgrade.
Racing is set to resume with the Sportingbet Park Re-Opens Race Day scheduled for Monday January 27 2014, the Australia Day Public Holiday.
Even with the break, Sportingbet Park, Sandown will host more than 30 per cent of the Melbourne metropolitan race meetings set down for the 2013-2014 racing season, emphasising the importance of what is the major sporting venue in the South Eastern Suburbs.
Feature days are highlighted by some of Australia’s premier jumping events.
The Australian Hurdle and Australian Steeplechase will be run in August and then the 2014 versions on Saturday 31 May 2014 at Sportingbet Park, Sandown. Next May will mark the 133rd running of the two premier jumping events, two of the oldest events on the Victorian racing calendar. The day is also the only Saturday metropolitan jumps meeting on the Victorian calendar.
Those two events are major lead-ups to the two biggest jumping events in Australia to be run in July.
On Sunday 13 July 2014, the best jumpers in the land will line up on one of the biggest days of cross country racing in Australia, Grand National Hurdle Day. Formerly conducted by the Victoria Racing Club at Flemington, this day and the Grand National Steeplechase Day, run two weeks later on Sunday 27 July 2014, a day which will also see a wealth of jumping talent, now come under the banner of the Melbourne Racing Club at Australia’s most exciting metropolitan jumping circuit.
Sportingbet Park, Sandown is the metropolitan mecca for jumps racing with a tough steeplechase course comprising an uphill run in the back straight that is not only spectacular but a true test of the equine athlete. During the 2013-2014 racing season, there will be three Saturday meetings and two on Sundays at Sportingbet Park, Sandown, along with the 22 Wednesday meetings and one on a Monday.
Sportingbet Park, Sandown provides a complete package with quality horse racing and ample family entertainment.
It is truly an entertainment venue for the entire community to be proud of and is a great racing venue, a fact even more evident in the new racing season.
