THE VICTORIAN RACING CLUBANDFLEMINGTON

By Dr. W. H. LANG

The early colonists of Victoria inaugurated racing, first upon the slopes of Batman’s Hill, and then on the now famous flats alongside the Salt Water River. The first Secretary of the Victorian Racing Club, Mr. Bagot, performed his duties with an enthusiastic and far-sighted thoroughness, and, at his too early death, his place was taken by Mr. Byron Moore, who has carried on the work unremittingly ever since, and who is still at his post there in Bourke Street, quiet, urbane, mild, and entirely business-like. The name of Mr. Byron Moore will live for ever in the annals of the V.R.C. During the late ’seventies, the ’eighties, and the ’nineties of the last century, the accommodation at Flemington was ample, and no one ever seemed to imagine that the great extent of lawn and hill, flat and grand stands would ever be overtaken by the magnitude of the crowds which assembled there to watch the national sport of the country. But since those days vast changes have been silently creeping on almost unnoticed. In the early days of the twentieth century, and even earlier, it became noticeable that on Cup days it was extremely difficult to force one’s way from the stands to the saddling enclosure and the betting ring. There was a somewhat narrow “bottle neck” between the corner of the main stand and the saddling and weighing enclosure, where, on a Melbourne Cup day, the difficulty experienced in worming a passage between races was almost insurmountable. A certain amount of relief was obtained by robbing the course itself of some of its superfluous width, and by slightly altering the turn out of the straight. But the relief was only temporary. By the year 1920, on which anniversary of the great day, the crowd was a record one, the attendance on the ground actually amounted to 110,000. Crowds of holiday-makers had also assembled on what is known as “The Footscray Hill,” an eminence on the other side of the Salt Water River, which faces the long straight six furlongs, and which is a splendid coign of vantage from which to view the scene, without being able accurately to name the winner in anything like a close finish.

Estimating the numbers there, and on the steep hillside at the other end of the “straight six” at some 15,000 or 20,000 more, the folk who actually took part in the day’s sport can be set down at somewhere close on 130,000 souls. Thirty-two years previous to this, when Mentor was the hero of the day, the crowd was reckoned at 80,000—an increase of 50,000. And the question at once arises in the mind: “Where is it going to end?” Victoria, which used to be nicknamed “the cabbage garden” of the States, will, before very long, be re-christened “the workshop of Australia.” She has cheap electrical power at the very doors of her metropolis, and has already surveyed her city of the future with a view to providing accommodation for two millions. And will the growth of the city come to an end there? To what size may Melbourne grow during the coming fifty years? And when she has even her two million inhabitants, will there be room enough at Flemington to provide for the 200,000 at least who will find their way to the course on Cup day?

The V.R.C. Committee has had something of this idea in front of it when it accepted the plans, during the last twelve months, for the reconstruction of the stands, lawns and saddling paddock.

Let us take a survey of the course and its surroundings, and you will then appreciate what the famous race-ground has been, and what it is destined to become.

If you stand upon the top of “The Hill,” you can take almost a bird’s-eye view of the arena and the features of the surrounding country.

The ground which the V.R.C. received from the Government at a peppercorn rent, and additional land which they acquired subsequently by purchase, lies at the foot of, and on the north-eastern side of, a huge cup. This cup on the south side, that farthest away from the winning post and stands, has a large piece bitten out of it, and then resembles the teacup which Tenniel represents the Mad Hatter in “Alice in Wonderland,” carrying about in his hand.

To the north-west, between the Flemington and the Footscray Hills, a considerable chip from the edge of the cup has also disappeared, and through the gap thus formed flow the sluggish waters of the Salt Water River.

Here on the Hill there is accommodation for an enormous crowd of racegoers, and from this high eminence, and from the stands which crown it, a magnificent view of the racing can be obtained. It is the choicest portion of the whole ground from which to enjoy the spectacle, and the top of the hill itself is nearly fifty feet above the race track as it passes the judge’s box. From here you see the Yarra, “dank and foul,” but deep and wide enough for two great ocean-going steamers to pass one another, flowing downwards to the bay, ere, “strong and free,” it reaches “the foaming Rip and the infinite main,” as in Kingsley’s song, and becomes as a “soul that has sinned and is pardoned again.” And here, too, at the wide gap in the cup, the Salt Water joins it and increases the Yarra’s volume on its course to the bay.

There is a little bit of commercial romance connected with the acquisition of the Hill, and some other portions of the grounds, by the Committee. In the beginning of the ’eighties of the last century the Club did not own the Hill, and the Railway Department was compelled, from lack of land, to take an inconvenient and even dangerous sweep of the line to the right, just before entering the platform. The blocks on which the Hill stands, and where the railway now runs, were for sale at this period—100 acres of land—and the price was £100 an acre. The Committee met and considered the advisability of making the purchase, and turned it down. But at this time the Royal Agricultural Society was located in a miserable spot which was half a swamp, and was on the look out for fresh fields. The V.R.C. Committee, having definitely refused to buy the 100 acres, Mr. Byron Moore, on his own account, now secured the lot. Thirty acres of this he sold to the Agricultural Society at £150 an acre, and the rest of it—the Committee now having its eyes thoroughly opened—he disposed of to that body at cost price. On this land the railway found room enough to straighten out the line; the Members’ Drive now sweeps majestically through its avenue of trees; the Hill provides a glorious site for the accommodation of racegoers; and an entrance is provided into the back portion of the saddling paddock.

You can see from where we stand the Members’ Drive, with its long line of trees, winding its way up to the edge of the cup at the Melbourne end of the course, and there disappearing into the general traffic. The public drive runs up to the same vanishing point, but on a lower level. Follow the edge of the cup round to the great gap, and you see, on the low-lying lands there, the abattoirs, from which, unfortunately, when the breeze blows direct from that quarter, a somewhat disagreeable odour reaches the senses of the crowd. Over the abattoirs, through the mists of winter, or the haze of the hot summer days, you see innumerable derricks and the funnels of the great fleets ofsteamers lying in the docks, and, as if to remind us of the past, the slender masts and furled sails of many a ship and gallant barque, loading for their long trek across the deep seas.

Warned by the sensible proximity of the abattoirs, the Committee in 1903 bought all the rugged stony hill, which lies there close at hand to where we are standing, and disposed of it very cheaply to the Footscray Council, provided always that it should be used as a public garden. It also gained possession of all the land on the far side of the river between the Footscray Hill and the ammunition manufactory, so that any risk of industries being established in the neighbourhood of the course, and which might, in the days to come, emit objectionable odours, has been for ever done away with. There, immediately at our feet, is the Grand Stand, separated from us only by a great gulf which somewhat resembles the barriers restraining the wild animals in their enclosures at the new Zoological Gardens in Sydney. Beneath the Grand Stand lie the very beautiful lawns, in the spring-time gay with flower-beds, and with the rails of the race track festooned artistically with creeping roses. The judge’s box and winning post stand opposite the lower end of the stand, and beyond that, and nearer the river, rise the Official and Members’ Stand and the Committee and Members’ Luncheon Rooms. Here, sheltering the Members’ Enclosure and the Betting Ring, rises a delightful little forest of “immemorial elms.” In the warm spring days, and in the scorching heat often experienced at the New Year Meeting, members, standing and sitting alongside the rails, the betting public, and the fraternity of bookmakers, have conducted their business for many years past in a leafy and chequered shade, and in an odour of sanctity which almost resembles that of a great cathedral.

Beyond the betting ring, and close by the river’s banks, lies the Bird-cage, where the racers have each their stall, and where they are sheltered from any wind that blows, and from the burning heat of summer suns. A lane runs from the Bird-cage up to the saddling enclosure in front of the Official Stand, and outside the Bird-cage, too, are the Casualty Rooms and various other necessary offices of the Club. Everything is beautifully complete.

And now look at the race track itself. The straight course, six furlongs in length, and the “course proper,” are nearly as level as a table. The Newmarket Course, the only straight six furlongs in Australia, with the exception, I think, of that at Singleton, runs from the foot of the pine-clad hillside where the Members’ and Public Drives merge into the general traffic, straight down to the winning post. Half-way to the post it is joined by the course proper, which, some three parts of a furlong past the judge, curves with a perfect racecourse turn to the left. After rounding the bend the horses race along by the river and have a splendid stretch in front of them with only a very slight curve until after passing the mile post. After this the track inclines very gradually left-handed past the seven furlongs, and the Australian Cup Starting Post, and then it rounds gently, like the large end of a great egg, until it joins the straight six again. The track itself is splendidly grassed, and the going is almost always as near to perfection as possible. The circuit of the course is 1 mile 3 furlongs 111⅓rd yards, and it is essentially one which is suitable for a genuine stayer.

The Melbourne Cup Course Starting Barrier stands between the entrance to the course proper and the Newmarket Barrier at the top of the straight. It is a noble sight to see a field of between twenty and thirty of the best horses in Australia wend their way from the enclosures, and, after the canter, trot up the straight to the Cup start. Here, within easy view of all the stands, they line up, and, after a few moments of breathless suspense, the barrier rises, and, to a mighty roar from a hundred thousand throats, the field with their glitteringjackets jump off and thunder down the broad ribbon of green, round the turn, and away along the river bank. It is the most heart-stirring event of the whole racing year, and will probably ever continue to be so. The Derby start takes place just above the Grand Stands and the Hill.

That, then, is the Flat Race Course. But Flemington is the home also of the Steeplechaser, and the Grand National, run for in the July of each year, is, to many sporting men, even as grand a spectacle as the Cup.

The fences are higher and stiffer than on any other steeplechase course in Australia, and although they are not nearly so formidable as they were fifty years ago, they are still a splendid test of the capabilities of the best of jumping horses in the land. The course runs inside the racing track, although at the big end of the egg it crosses to the outside and then comes back again just before the entry to the straight running. There are six obstacles to be surmounted in the straight—three posts and rails, a log, a very solid stone wall and a paling. After leaving the straight a very good live hedge, with plenty of width on top, is taken, and then along the river side two posts and rails. At the abattoirs the field turns to the left, and, crossing the race track, takes a solid post and rail and a log, then two more fences of the same description, and, lastly, a live hedge is crossed before entering the straight for the run home.

In the old days the leaps were, as we have noticed, higher, and they were also what you might call “very rough and hairy.” The top ends of the posts were left sticking right up, and were “iron-clasped and iron-bound” like Michael Scott’s book of Glamourie. Now, in a more humane age, the posts are sawn off level with the rails, the top rails themselves and the coping of the walls, and the logs, too, are well padded, so that if horses strike they no longer seriously injure their limbs, even if they hit very heavily.

The sport of steeplechasing, fostered by hunting, is a very popular one in Victoria, and in spite of the fact that races of that sort are decided almost every week, very few horses are seriously injured, and the riders, as a rule, escape with comparatively little hurt.

At the far end of the property several training tracks are laid out, some of which cross the straight six furlongs racecourse at right angles. Here are “the big sand” and the “cinders” and the “tan,” while in the space enclosed by the round course, on the flat, is a sand, and, just completed within the last few weeks, a capital grass track. The course itself is occasionally thrown open for galloping at special times, but, of course, some distance out from the rails.

There are usually somewhere approaching 400 horses located in Flemington, Ascot Vale and the neighbourhood that make use daily of these various training grounds.

Such, then, is a brief description of the course, training grounds, stands and lawns of famous Flemington, as they have been until this year of grace 1922. But, although the running tracks and steeplechase course will probably remain unchanged for an indefinite number of years, the stands, lawns, betting rings and all the enclosures and saddling paddocks are about to undergo an entire regeneration.

A plate showing the projected improvements—which will be commenced very shortly—will give the best idea of what is to be done. The present Grand Stand will remain as it is, as will the Members’ and Official Stands. The large brick stand farther up the lawn, which is being used to-day, will be removed, and a magnificent three-decker, as seen in the plate, will take its place. In front of this will be the new lawns, the saddling and mounting enclosure, and, farther up the straight, the Bird-cage.

The lawns of to-day will still be there, but the betting ring will be located behind the new Grand Stand, and the park for motors will occupy the space between the Bird-cage and the Members’ and the Public Drives. And provision has been made for space in which to erect totalisator buildings, if that form of wagering ever becomes law in Victoria.

The whole scheme of things is a tremendous stride in advance of what was deemed so good during the last forty years. In the ’eighties all the arrangements were believed to be as near to perfection as it was possible to attain. In another forty years the increase of population may once more insist upon still more extensive alterations. And meantime there is one question which causes habitués of Flemington to heave a heavy sigh. And that is: What is going to happen to our glorious elms? The trees will remain where they are, of course, but who will make use of them? The leafy groves which sheltered our forefathers as they took their pleasure joyously, and which lent their shade, giving a feeling of peace even whilst sitting in their shadow beside the babel and pandemonium of the betting ring, will no longer perform their wonted function, and we shall all miss them sorely—those old and trusted, never-failing friends.

But a new generation will arise that knew not Joseph Thompson, nor Oxenham, nor Sol Green, nor the Messrs. Allen, and all the other famous members of the ring, and “Under the Elms” will become a memory.

The Lawn and Stand at Flemington.

Flemington Course from the Air, showing Maribyrnong River in the foreground.

Projected Improvements to Flemington Racecourse.

Plan of Flemington, showing Race-track and Steeplechase Course.

Back to Index Next