Part Three of the review of tracks utilised in the Melbourne metropolitan area will look at the remaining racecourses that commenced operations in the late 1880’s and continued well into the mid-twentieth century.
Melbourne’s metropolitan track development can be broken down into six stages – this review is the second part of looking at the third stage taking in John Wren’s rein over various courses.
Richmond –
Richmond an inner suburb of Melbourne located 3 kms (1.86 miles) east of the CBD in the local government area of the city of Yarra municipality.
The old Richmond racecourse was located on the south side of Bridge Road between Stawell Street and Westbrook Terrace, just west of the old Channel 9 studios in Bendigo Street. Richmond was yet another racecourse owned by John Wren (see later), a location for trotting and motor car races. An area of sixteen acres extending south towards the intersection of Park and Bendigo Sts on a site originally known as O’Connor’s paddock.
Various descriptions of the size of this tiny trotting course exist – only five furlongs (1000m) long OR a sand track of four furlongs and 38 yds (918 yds), straight less than half furlong OR four furlongs 52 yards (932 yds) OR 936 yds, described as an all cinders track opposite the tram terminus in Bridge St. The course was developed by a syndicate headed by JW Scott (son of JB Scott – Sherwood Park – racecourse at Camberwell). Operated by the Richmond Pony and Galloway Club opening for business during Melbourne Cup week 1891 (2 November 1891) with the first trotting event held on 23 December.
In 1893 the first Tradesmen’s meetings (funds directed to local charity) were held at Richmond for bona fide working horses representing Butchers, Bakers, Milkmen, Grocers, Greengrocers, Fishmongers etc. Together with Moonee Valley Richmond, held the most all trotting metropolitan meetings in Melbourne during the last decade of the nineteenth century remaining the main Melbourne trotting track before handing over to Ascot in 1932.
The common thought was that the Melbourne Showgrounds in 1947 and earlier exhibition trotting events at Royal Melbourne Shows during 1930’s were the first trotting events held under lights in Melbourne. However in 1893 at the South Yarra Sports and Steamboat course and at midweek mixed meetings (ponies, Galloways, trotting horses) at Richmond on 28 October (two trots) and 1 November 1893 (one trot) three trotting events over two nights were run under lights : pony trot winner Miss Jessie and other two trots won by Dear Boy. The lights were rudimentary and nowhere powerful enough or in sufficient numbers to allow reasonable viewing by the public, hence the concept lapsed.
Richmond hosted a series of match races in 1893 between Mystery and Osterley a) 13 September over one mile (two heats of three) with Osterley winning two heats after Mystery went lame during the second heat; heat one T2:25.0 new Australian record which he bettered at Melbourne Showgrounds on 1 September 1894 T2:24.8TT b) 11 October over two miles with Mystery winner c) 16 October over three miles, Osterley victorious in 7mins 30¾ seconds (over twenty seconds quicker than Hero’s time established at Sandown Park in December 1891).
John Wren’s empire consisted of Richmond, Fitzroy (Northcote/Croxton) and Ascot (on Epsom road opposite Showground’s) racecourses purchased or leased in 1906. The Australian Trotting Association (also raced few meetings at Moonee Valley in 1895) became known as John Wrens’ Victorian Trotting and Racing Association (VT&RA) which was eventually managed by Sir Gilbert Dyett.
The Richmond Pony and Galloway Club was purchased by John Wren in 1906. The Richmond pony track became home to the Victorian Pony and Galloway Racing Club which held three meetings a week and at least 156 meetings per annum. The Melbourne Trotting Club (MTC) commenced with an inaugural meeting on 11 May 1907 consisting of five events, the main one over 1 mile for £100. Richmond was also used for carnivals, fairs, motor car/motorcycle racing, boxing matches, picnics and a grazing place for the local councils draft horses.
Wren faced the closure of his totalisator and bookmaking businesses the following year (1907) because of new anti-gambling laws that also banned betting at tracks of less than six furlongs i.e. Richmond. The track was exempted from those laws by amendments pushed through by Premier Thomas Bent that limited Wren’s weekly events at Richmond, Fitzroy and Ascot to sixteen each year.
The MTC programmed the Melbourne Cup of trotting the “Melbourne Thousand” run at Richmond from 1911 – 1931. The inaugural running in 1911 was won by Delavan Chimes ridden by Gus Millsom for AR Tewkesbury of Temora while the 1931 edition in Depression years won by Divitius was worth £500.
A considerable number of Australian mile records were set on Richmond racecourse between 1893 and 1920 : two year old pacers (including race mile) and trotters; pacing and trotting mares; all comers pacing and trotting (including race mile) mile records.
The last meeting at Richmond took place on Monday 25 July 1932 with the main Melbourne trotting track transferring to Ascot.
In 1938 the Housing Commission took over land leased to John Wren and occupied by the Richmond racecourse to erect 138 working men’s houses on site as part of the Victorian Government’s plan to build public housing. The first estate built was in Port Melbourne at Garden City with the slum abolition movement completing its next build in 1941 on land occupied by Richmond racecourse. Tudor Street and Westbank Terrace are notable for their many clinker brick houses, the original Housing Commission of Victoria houses built on the old Richmond Racecourse. In the early 2000’s it was the site of GTV9 studios and other housing developments.
South Yarra Sports and Steamboat course –
South Yarra an inner suburb of Melbourne 4 kms south-east of Melbourne’s CBD, located within the cities of Melbourne and Stonnington local government areas.
The South Yarra Sports and Steamboat course was so small (700 yards) that it was only suitable for pony gallopers and ridden pony trotters. The pony circuit held its first meeting on 19 November 1892 when eleven trotting races were conducted (saddle trots only). Both Richmond and South Yarra ran meetings under lights in 1893 – South Yarra conducted four meetings on 11, 15, 21 and 28 September 1894 (all pony races) under lights before the South Yarra track closed its operations.
Ascot –
Ascot Vale is an inner suburb 6 km north-west of Melbourne in the local government area of the city of Moonee Valley. Ascot Vale is bounded in the west by the Maribyrnong River, in the north by Maribyrnong and Ormond Roads, in the east by the Moonee Ponds Creek and in the south by Lyons Road and Epsom Road to the railway line thence generally north-east to Moonee Ponds Creek.
Melbourne’s southern suburbs weren’t the only ones to feature racecourses in close proximity to one another. A short distance to the north of Flemington racecourse, located on Epsom Road across the road from the Melbourne Showgrounds precinct in Ascot Vale was the seven furlong (1408m) Ascot Racecourse.
Melbourne’s Ascot was a privately operated racetrack named after the famous English racecourse. Bounded by Union, Ascot Vale and Maribyrnong roads in Ascot Vale, built on a site covering 77 acres between Union Road and Ascot Vale Road. The track consisted of separate circuits laid out for flat racing, trotting and steeplechasing. The track was the brainchild of John Riley, who had previously operated the Oakleigh Park track on Melbourne’s south eastern outskirts (Sandown). Riley hired 150 men, horses and drays to move all the buildings from the defunct Oakleigh course to Ascot.
The inaugural race meeting at Ascot racecourse was held on Wednesday 25 October 1893 despite the chagrin of one hundred and twenty two local Ascot Vale residents who presented the Essendon council with a petition in September 1893 against the racecourse proposal. The petitioners argued because of the large number of existing racecourses in the area (Moonee Valley/Flemington) no more should be allowed to open believing the new racecourse would encourage the attendance of undesirables, depreciating their property values and the small size of the track (seven furlongs) endangering the lives of riders.
The petitioner’s objections appear to have been rejected with a crowd of around three thousand in attendance on 25 October, £300 distributed in stakes with the principal event the Ascot Cup worth £100 with a handsome trophy going to the winner. With Melbourne’s property boom turning to a bust, Riley’s Ascot racing venture did not succeed, the track being closed for an unknown period prior to reopening under new management in September 1899. After Moonee Valley and Richmond together with Maribynong, Ascot held most all trotting metropolitan meetings during the last decade of the nineteenth century.
The biggest difference between Ascot and its famous neighbour Flemington was the operation of race meetings. Instead of being run by a racing club that reinvested their profits in racing and their member’s facilities, Ascot was a “proprietary racecourse” run by the private owner as a profit making business. With race meetings significantly more downmarket than those held by the racing clubs, Melbourne’s collection of proprietary racecourses were popular with the working class in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries until they were closed by the Victorian State Government in 1931.
In 1906 John Wren purchased Ascot racecourse sparking an immediate call from opponents to have the track’s licence to operate as a proprietary racecourse revoked. Wren was an entrepreneur, a character of some note, “John West” in the 1950 novel Power Without Glory is considered as being based on Wren. A big player in the industry and owner of a number of racetracks.
Wren made his fortune in the late 1890s with his business of totalisator betting systems challenging the traditional on track bookmakers and drawing the ire of the state governing body of racing the Victoria Racing Club, who pressured the Victorian State Government into banning the practice in 1906. Wren’s purchase of the Ascot Racecourse along with other proprietary tracks at Richmond and Fitzroy, enabled him to run his own pony races targeted at working class gamblers as opposed to the thoroughbreds racing at the elite clubs.
A number of Australian mile records were set on the Ascot course in the opening decade of 1900’s : 2yo Pacers race mile (Denver Huon, 1907 2:37½); 2yo Trotters mile (Grattan Bells, 26 July 1909 T2:29¾); Pacers mile/race mile (Silver Boy, 25 Jul 1901 2:23.4; 22 Oct 1901 2:20.6); Pacers mile (Almont, 2:12.2TT, 29 June 1903). Trotting races ceased at Ascot in 1910 recommencing in 1932.
Wren’s enemies continued in their attempts to bring down his racing empire over the next decade. In July 1915 John Wren offered the Ascot track to the Defence Department for military use to assist the cause of World War I. Days later an unnamed deputation called for the Government to cancel the license of Ascot Racecourse for good. The request was refused by Chief Secretary John Murray who stated that the abolition of proprietary racecourses was a question to be answered after the war. Seeing the writing on the wall, Wren sold his Victorian interests in 1920 to the Victorian Racing and Trotting Association (VR&TA) allowing Ascot Racecourse to remain open when the State Government closed the Sandown Park, Fitzroy, Aspendale and Richmond racecourses in 1931.
Trotting returned to Ascot in 1932 when it took over as the metropolitan venue for trotting in Melbourne from the recently closed Richmond course. The first meeting held on the 1000m cinder track took place on 8 August 1932 where racing continued until the track was closed after the 29 August 1942 meeting.
Ascot continued the Melbourne Thousand tradition pioneered by Richmond except that due to the depression years it was reduced to the Ascot £500. It ran from 1932 to 1937 (1934 run as VIC Royal Centenary Cup) with winners including New Derby (1932, 1933) and Lawn Derby in the final running in 1937.
On 5 November 1934 Royals Echo became the seventh Australian bred to break 2:10 for a mile – 2:09.0 at Ascot. The Victorian Pacers and Trotters Derbies that commenced in 1914 at Richmond continued at Ascot until 1941. Broadcasts of racing were banned from February 1942.
The intensification of World War II in 1942 placed further restrictions on race meetings throughout Australia. A short newspaper article in September 1942 advised that the racecourse was “required for other purposes” and would not be available for race meetings during the war (code for defence related matters). Ascot like Williamstown and Caulfield was taken over by the Commonwealth for military use in WWII with racing halting after their meeting of 29 August 1942. Trotting moved to country areas with Woodend one of the few tracks in operation briefly becoming the main trotting track for Melbourne.
During this period Flemington, Moonee Valley and Mentone were the remaining racing venues in the metropolitan area and by end of the war in 1945 Caulfield Racecourse was allowed to reopen. Racing did not resume at Ascot after the war as the remaining Victorian racing venues were consolidated. On 18 August 1945 the State Premier Mr. Dunstan announced that the Government had decided against the resumption of racing at Ascot with the Victorian Racing and Trotting Association (VR&TA) to be relocated to a new venue at Sandown Park while the land in Ascot Vale would be turned over for housing development.
The VR&TA objected to the move because they held a long term lease from John Wren for Ascot, denying accusations they were a proprietary racing club, stating that their profits went back to racing along with charity and patriotic groups. The Housing Commission would be the developer believing the value of the land was reasonable if it was used for flats but would not be economical if individual houses were built instead.
Due to a breakdown in negotiations with Wren and his partners in regards to the purchase price, the State Government issued a notice of compulsory acquisition in March 1946 under the Slum Reclamation and Housing Act. Wren was unhappy with the Government offer of £117,000 in compensation for the use of the 31 hectare site by the Housing Commission, valuing the site at £174,000 and so lodging a claim at the County Court on 17 September 1946. The case was settled on 15 October when the State Cabinet agreed to acquire the site for £142,618 – a figure roughly halfway between the competing claims.
Altogether the Housing Commission built homes for 2,600 people on the 77 acre site made up of 400 flats, 100 villa pairs and 50 single villas, along with 5 acres of parkland and a network of streets named after Australian World War II personnel. The first residents had moved into the estate by Christmas 1947 with rentals of two pound five shillings a week (in 1948) the most of all Housing Commission tenants in Victoria. Today the flats are managed by the Housing Commission’s successor, the Victorian Office of Housing remaining as public housing in an increasingly gentrified suburb.
John Wren received an additional windfall in June 1947, the City of Essendon had attempted to charge him £5,591 in rates and interest accrued during the World War II occupation of the racecourse. Taking the fight to the High Court who found by a four to one margin that municipalities could not legally collect rates for properties taken over by the Commonwealth for defence purposes.
The Victorian Racing and Trotting Association merged with the Victoria Amateur Turf Club and the Williamstown Racing Club in 1963 to form the Melbourne Racing Club, which still operates today. As for their promised new racecourse at Sandown, it didn’t open until 19 June 1965.
Albert Park Speedway –
John Peck’s extensive publication “Real Horse Power at Albert Park” a comprehensive history of the Albert Park Speedway 1903 – 1907 can be read on www.classicfamilies.net.
Briefly, Albert Park Speedway (Melbourne Speedway Club) opened for business on Saturday 29 August 1903 on a couch grass track with clay base of seven furlongs with speeding done on a half mile strip. The straight line track ran from South Melbourne to St Kilda on the west side of Albert Park Lake (Albert Park lagoon).
In 1904, the Blue Ribbon Championship for trotters or pacers consisting of brushes over a half mile, best two of three heats were contested. Four were held in January/February 1904, with Mr George Tye’s Chance winning them all. The Albert Park Speedway held its final meeting on 19 January 1907, closing for racing in March 1907. However on 3 June 1912, a one off Tradesman’s Trot was held following the completion of a local football match on the Albert Park oval.
Woodend –
Woodend a small town in Victoria in the Shire of Macedon Ranges local government area and is bypassed to the east and north by the Calder Freeway (M79), located about halfway between Melbourne and Bendigo.
The three quarter mile grass track was opened on 20 March 1923 and served as an important venue for trotting during WWII when it was one of the few tracks in operation. Country Woodend was briefly the main track for major Melbourne meetings due to the closure of most other tracks – before the government took control of the sport. This was at the time the control exercised by John Wren was being reduced and saw the formation of the Metropolitan and Country Trotting Association with its aims including night trotting in the Melbourne metropolitan area and being a control board for Victorian trotting. Trotting at Woodend ceased on 7 April 1952.
Olympic Park Speedway –
The Motordrome, also known as the Olympic Park Speedway, the Melbourne Speedway or the Victorian Speedway, was a former speedway and Australian rules football ground located approximately on the site of the present day Melbourne Rectangular Stadium in Olympic Park. The ground was primarily a speedway track, but also hosted football matches.
The Melbourne Carnivals Pty. Ltd, a company established in 1923 by Jack Campbell and Jim DuFrocq, developed and leased from the Crown a large site on Batman Avenue known as the Amateur Sports Ground with the help of local entrepreneur and devoted Collingwood Magpies fan John Wren. On the site, the Melbourne Motordrome (1924 – 1933) was constructed. The stadium contained a grassed oval suitable for football, set inside a saucer-shaped concrete oval track suitable for motor racing, the track being a third of a mile long and banked at a forty six degree angle. Although Melbourne Carnivals originally had visions for the stadium to accommodate 100,000 spectators, it was ultimately built to accommodate around 32,000. The Motordrome was opened on 29 November 1924 with 32,000 spectators attending the inaugural race meeting.
In 1933, the ageing concrete surface of the motor racing track was no longer suitable for the higher powered vehicles which used it so it was demolished and replaced with a dirt track which continued to be used for motor racing. The 511 yard track was opened in 1934 and used until 1946 for both motor racing and harness racing – only used for match races and time trials.
In the same year (1933), the Amateur Sports Ground was renamed Olympic Park with the name generally used for both the former Motordrome stadium and the wider park in which it was situated. The name change had no connection to the Olympic Games – Melbourne was not selected as the host of the 1956 Summer Olympics until 1949 – and rather was chosen because the former name ‘Amateur Sports Ground’ no longer reflected the class and type of sport which was now played on the grounds (motor racing, trotting, Aussie Rules). The complex was sold after the Second World War and began to be converted into the Olympic Park Stadium used during the 1956 Olympics.
Wyndham –
The City of Wyndham (including Werribee) is a local government area in the outer south-western suburbs of Melbourne, between Melbourne and the regional city of Geelong.
On 22 April, 1861, the same year that Wyndham township was proclaimed, a Wyndham Racecourse and Recreation Reserve (400-500 acres of Crown land) was gazetted. A Wyndham Racing Club was formed to avert the cutting up of the racecourse reserve into five-acre blocks for closer settlement with racing first held on 4 May 1878. By January 1880 the course had been fenced and the club borrowed further money to finance improvements, including the installation of a grandstand.
It was claimed in April 1903 that although the racecourse “possesses one of the best racing tracks in the state” it was used only for a couple of mixed meetings with small prize money. The debts were so large by this time that the reserve was temporarily leased for cultivation and grazing purposes. An advertisement in the local press of February 19, 1904 called for tenders “to cultivate, graze or train horses on above reserve.” Cultivation leases of three years and grazing and training leases of seven years were offered. The mixed meetings referred to would be gallops and trotting. It is the only reference found to indicate trotting races were held on the Wyndham course.
In 1912 a new Wyndham Racing Club was formed. Werribee Racecourse has been located on this site since 1861. Nowadays the racecourse is a modern facility with large grandstand and other buildings dating from the 1950s onwards. In October 2018, the Werribee Racing Club granted naming rights to Spendthrift Australia for Werribee racecourse, the facility becoming known as Spendthrift Australia Park at Werribee.
Next Time : Melbourne Showgrounds
Peter Craig
15 September 2021
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