Category: Racecourses

The oldest racecourse in Australia, still in operation, is Royal Randwick Racecourse, situated in the Eastern Suburbs region of Sydney, New South Wales, approximately four miles south-east of the city centre. Randwick, officially ‘Royal Randwick’ since 1992, began life as the ‘Sandy Course’ in the autumn of 1833 and staged annual races until 1838. By that stage, the racing surface had deteriorated dangerously and, faced with falling attendances, caused by increasingly unruly behaviour of patrons, the course closed.

Thereafter, Randwick was used only as a training establishment, until the Australian Jockey Club (AJC), which had been founded, as the Australian Race Committee (ARC), in 1840, moved its headquarters to the racecourse in 1860. Racing at Randwick resumed in May that year. In 2011, the AJC merged with the Sydney Turf Club (STC) to form the Australian Turf Club (ATC), which currently operates Royal Randwick Racecourse.

Since 2017, Royal Randwick Racecourse has been home to the most valuable race run in Australia,The Everest, staged annually during the Sydney Spring Carnival in October. A weight-for-age contest, run over 1,200 metres, or approximately 6 furlongs, The Everest offers total prize money of A$15 million, but commands an entry fee of A$600,000.

For the record, the first official horse race in Australia took place in Hyde Park, Sydney, in 2010. Meetings were staged, sporadically, until 1925, but at that stage Hyde Park was abandoned in favour of Bellevue Hill.and Camperdown.

The British racecourse with the longest, uninterrupted circuit is Pontefract in West Yorkshire. Pontefract, which has no straight course, is a left-handed, undulating oval, 2 miles and 125 yards in circumference. Pontefract was established in 1790, but has undergone major redevelopment more than once in its history. As far as the layout of the course is concerned, in April, 1983, the original horseshoe, approximately a mile and a half in extent, was extended to form a complete oval, with no gaps or chutes.

Indeed, Pontefract now stages the aptly-named Pontefract Marathon Handicap, over a distance of 2 miles 5 furlongs and 139 yards, in April each year. The longest Flat handicap run in Britain, the Pontefract Marathon Handicap is just four yards shorter than the Queen Alexandra Stakes, a condition stakes race run at Royal Ascot, which has the distinction of being the longest Flat race run under rules not only in Britain, but anywhere in the world.

With pronounced undulations and a sharp turn into the home straight, which is only two furlongs long, Pontefract Racecourse can hardly be described as ‘galloping’. However, the last three-quarters of a mile is essentially uphill, steeply so for the final three furlongs, so the emphasis is very much on stamina. Sprint races are run around a left-hand bend, but any draw bias in these races is minimal.

Emily Wilding Davison became a martyr to the suffragette cause when, on June 4, 1913, she was struck, and fatally injured, by the King’s horse, Anmer, during the running of the Derby at Epsom. Her intentions in dashing onto the racecourse as the backmarkers rounded Tattenham Corner are not entirely clear, but she was knocked unconscious and died at Epsom Cottage Hospital four days later from a ‘fracture at the base of the skull’ without regaining consciousness.

Various hypotheses have been proposed to explain her behaviour. Some eyewitnesses suggested that Davison ran out in a reckless suicide attempt, others that she attempted to bring down Anmer. Subsequent analysis of contemporary newsreel footage, though, suggests that she was, in fact, attempting to advertise the ‘Votes for Women’ campaign by tying a banner, or flag, to the bridle of a half-tonne racehorse galloping at full speed.

Indeed, following the tragic accident, two such banners were found on her body. The fact that Davison and fellow suffragettes were reportedly seen practising tackling horses on Morpeth Common beforehand adds weight to this argument. Historians have also pointed out that Davison was in possession of an expensive return ticket for her travel to Epsom Downs and had written a postcard to her sister, Letitia, about a proposed visit to Paris shortly afterwards.