By ROY ASPINALL
As a new Victorian racing year commences on 1 August, the Melbourne Racing Club will continue to offer free admission for all Wednesday meetings at Ladbrokes Park, Sandown.
That means that of the 35 meetings to be run at Ladbrokes Park, Sandown, in the 2016-2017 season, 30 of them will offer free admission.
The first race meeting in a busy year at Ladbrokes Park, Sandown, will be staged on Sunday 7 August which will see the running of the 134th $200,000 Grand National Hurdle (3900 metres) and the $125,000 Crisp Steeplechase (3900 metres).
The major feature date will be Sandown Spring Carnival Race Day on Saturday 12 November featuring the Sandown Guineas, Zipping Classic, Eclipse Stakes and Sandown Cup at the conclusion of the Melbourne Spring Carnival.
The Sandown Guineas, for three-year-olds, has an impressive reputation for producing future star gallopers.
The Zipping Classic was formerly the Sandown Classic which had originally been known as the Sandown Cup.
The Melbourne Racing Club changed the name to recognise the incredible feat of Zipping to win his fourth successive Sandown Classic in November 2010.
By doing so Zipping became only the fourth horse in Australian racing history to win the same Group race four or more years in succession.
The previous horses to do it were Lord (Group 2 Memsie Stakes 1958-61), Manikato (Group 2 William Reid Stakes 1979-83) and Tie The Knot (Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes 1999-02).
In 2010, the new Sandown Cup was introduced over 3200 metres and the race becomes a qualifying event for the following year’s Melbourne Cup and in time it is sure to become a major event on the calendar.
The other feature days are highlighted by some of Australia’s premier jumping events.
The Grand National Hurdle and Crisp Steeplechase open the season with the Australian Hurdle and Australian Steeplechase to be run on Saturday 27 May 2017 at Ladbrokes Park, Sandown.
Next May will mark the 136th running of the two premier jumping events, which are 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 August.
Other feature days are Christmas Eve and Easter Monday.
