One of the highest tributes the course has received in its long history comes from the present Prince of Wales, who during his visit to Sydney spent some of his happiest days riding impromptu races at Randwick.
It is the Mecca of Australia to the true horse-lover, and, sitting under its shady fig-trees, one may see the bronzed men of the far Northern Territory who have come thousands of miles to swell the cosmopolitan crowds which tread the green lawns and back their fancies. In the paddock the strangest conglomeration of people assembles, for racing is the greatest class leveller in the world. There is much truth in the saying that all men are equal both on the turf and under it.
THE VICTORIAN RACING CLUB AND FLEMINGTON
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.