Fast month at Sandown

SANDOWN racecourse will host another three horseracing meetings in January, making it a total of five race days for the month.
The busy schedule at the track has been caused by the transfer of several meetings from Caulfield due to track renovations.
The first two meetings were held on 7 January and yesterday (Wednesday), with the next three being scheduled for this Saturday, Saturday 21 January and Australia Day, Thursday 26 January.
The meeting originally set down for Wednesday, 18 January has been transferred to Cranbourne due to the workload at Sandown.
This Saturday’s meeting, to be run on the Sandown Lakeside track, is the traditional Melbourne Racing Club summer race day.
The feature event will be $100,000 Listed Barton Stakes over 1400 metres.
Until recent years, this was one of the feature events on the Sandown calendar and always attracted a strong field as an ideal lead-up to some of the major events during the Melbourne autumn racing carnival.
Six prominent former committee members of the Melbourne Racing Club and its previous identity as the Victoria Amateur Turf Club will be recognised at the meeting.
Among the events will be the $50,000 Thomas North Super VOBIS Plate (1200 metres), $50,000 Geoffrey Bellmaine Super VOBIS Handicap (1200 metres), $50,000 Ian Miller Super VOBIS Handicap (1400 metres), $50,000 Noel Rundle Handicap (1200 metres) and the $50,000 Robert Hunter Handicap (1600 metres).
The other event is the $50,000 Cendrillon Handicap over 1200 metres, which recognises one of the fastest fillies to grace the Australian turf.
A former holder of the Australian 1000 metres record – coincidentally set at Sandown – Cendrillon was trained at Caulfield by R.G. ‘Kel’ Chapman and included among her wins the 1966 Thousand Guineas, defeating the great Storm Queen, and the 1967 Futurity Stakes.
Free entertainment on Saturday will feature pony rides and a Gymbus and course admission will be $7 for adults, $4 concession and children under 18 accompanied by an adult are admitted free.