Get down to Sandown

SANDOWN Racecourse will open its gates to the local community on Sunday when it hosts the sixth City of Greater Dandenong Cup on its annual Community Race Day.
The event, which has run every year since the inaugural race in 2004, always attracts plenty of locals and the Melbourne Racing Club, which runs Sandown, is offering cheap admission to the day.
Local adults can score a two-for-one deal on admission and the first 250 locals through the gates will get a free race book. Local councillor Peter Brown is on board, spruiking the event he helped launch six years ago.
The feature race has a proud history of winners, including Lee Freedman-trained and Damien Oliver-ridden Red Hannigan in 2005, and Karen Fox’s Gypsy Battalia, who was steered to victory by Kerrin McEvoy in the 2007 race. This year the race will be run on the Hillside track, the same course that Landloper set the track record on when he won in 2006, in a time of 1.35.20.