To mark Dandenong Star Journal’s 160 years of publication, PHILIP SALAMA-WEST is taking a then-and-now look at the people, places and events that have formed Dandenong’s modern history.
This week, the spotlight is on Sandown Racecourse, which opened to great acclaim as a world-leading exemplar in 1965. In recent times, a push to turn the venue into a vast suburb has roused deep passions in horse-racing and motor-racing industries.
An extract of the Tuesday 1 June 1965 article in The Journal appears below.
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NEW TRACK OPEN ON JUNE 19
SANDOWN – When the £31m Sandown Racecourse opens, it will fill a long-felt need – that of convenient, comfortable yet exciting racing.
Sandown has not grown up in a piecemeal fashion.
The site was chosen as a racecourse, its contours redesigned and the grandstand and track designed and sited to provide viewing facilities unequalled anywhere in the world.
Sandown is the culmination of some 17 years’ intensive planning, the result of which has meant a completely “new deal” for racing patrons, with refinements such as totalisator windows in the concourse bars atop the grandstand which have an uninterrupted view of the track.
The concept of a new racecourse in Melbourne – the first major metropolitan course to be built in Australia for 100 years – goes back to 1948 when the State Government legislated to reduce the number of racecourses in Melbourne.
As a result an amalgamation was effected between the Williamstown Racing Club and the Victorian Trotting and Racing Association.
The new body was called the Melbourne Racing Club and it was given a charter by the government to build a racecourse at Springvale.
By arrangement with the Government and the Victoria Amateur Turf Club, and Moonee Valley Racing Club, the Melbourne Racing Club was given permission to conduct its meetings at Flemington, Caulfield and Moonee Valley until the new Sandown Racecourse was built.
Progress on the site was necessarily slow.
The contours of the land had to be completely redesigned, which necessitated moving a hill from one side of the course to the other.
Drainage presented an enormous initial problem, and steps were taken to ensure that nearby housing settlements did not become flooded out because of changes in the contours of the land.
At one stage, the club decided to sell off some of its land at Sandown in a fully-developed housing subdivision and the profit made from this development helped pay for the enormous capital expenditure.
14 MEETINGS
The design of the new track itself was chosen after extensive studies overseas.
It is basically American, with two straight runs – back and front – of 21 1⁄2 ft.
There are two turns at each end of equal radius and the circumference of the course proper is 9f and four chains.
This means that the horses are always very close to the stand which is situated along the centre of the home straight.
Because Sandown has been conceived as a whole its general services are excellent.
The track is located beside the Princes Hwy, and the VATC has built an overpass across the highway so that access to the course is a simple matter.
Strategically-situated car parks near all entrances will accommodate about 12,000 cars, and in succeeding years further areas will be developed so that 16,000 cars can be accommodated.
In addition, one side of the course adjoins the main Gippsland railway line, and a new station has been built to cater for rail travellers from Melbourne and Gippsland.
One innovation exclusive to Sandown is the placement of about 65 closed circuit television
screens in selected positions in and under the grandstand – in bars, dining rooms.
These screens will give a continuous service of riders’ names, claims and overweights, results, prices, view of presentations and other sporting results.
The service will be broadcast from Sandown’s own television studio, located under the grandstand.
For patrons sitting in the stand itself, the latest American type of infield totalisator odds indicator has been erected in the centre of the racecourse.
The indicator will show fluctuations of betting, judges’ placings and race results.
Small totalisator odds indicator boards will serve underneath the grandstand.
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A further story on 10 June 1965 (Sandown’s history – a century of sport) detailed the site’s varied sporting heritage including horses, running, live hare coursing and speed coursing.
Sixty years later, the future of Sandown Racecourse has been tenuous.
The owner Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) proposed to rezone Sandown for a residential suburb of 7500 dwellings, 16,000 residents and retail, community, sports and commercial facilities.
Last year, the State-appointed Sandown Racecourse Advisory Committee (SRAC) hosted hearings and recommended the proposal.
But at the same time, an MRC board coup saw John Kanga, a vocal supporter of retaining the racecourse, become the racing club’s chair. And the proposal has at least temporarily cooled.
As of June 2025, Sandown continues to host sporting events, with horse, dog and motor races planned through to the end of the year.
