HISTORY OF FLEMINGTON

Flemington is situated in South Victoria at Melbourne.  It is very popular among the Australians.  Every November Melbourne Cup is held here.  This is the biggest racing event.  It was known as Melbourne Racecourse.  The racing track went across the estate of James Watson.  His estate was located at Monnee Ponds Creek at Mount Alexander Road.  Now, Watson’s wife Elizabeth was from Flemington, her birthplace, a place in Morayshire, Scotland.  Robert Fleming lived in Scotland and so the place was named Flemington.

The Melbourne Cup was first held in 1861.  The Victoria Racing Club is formed by two clubs named Victoria Turf Club (1848) and Victoria Jockey Club (1864).  Generally 120,000 is the capacity of Flemington but in 2006, on VRC Derby Day, 129,089 people witnessed the racing event.  A horse named “Efficient” was the winner on that day!

The Flemington Race Course was started in 1840.  It is quite popular in Australia.  The most important racing event is Melbourne Cup which takes place every Tuesday in the month of November.  The other races are Victoria Derby, The VRC Oaks and the Emirates Stakes, Turnbull Stakes, Lightning Stakes, Newmarket Handicap.

The Flemington Race Course is enlisted in Australian National Heritage List on November 7, 2006.  This was declared in the Melbourne Cup 2006. 

Two main festivals are held in autumn and spring.  It is very interesting to watch this event. 

Everybody in Australia is enthusiastic about this event.  The festival in the spring season is very big.  About 100,000 people watch this event.  The Victoria Racing Club is found in Flemington.

The autumn racing event is organized during February and March.  The festival lasts for 4 days at Melbourne.  The biggest event is named as Super Saturday of Racing.  Group 1 racing day 2 is held at this time along with the Australian Cup and New Market Handicap. 

The prize money at Flemington is really great.  The  Australian Cup winner gets $1,000, 000.  The Newmarket Handicap winner gets $1,000, 000.  The Australian Guineas winner get $750,000.  The Lightning Stakes winner gets $500,000.  The first three is held in March while the last one is held in February.

If we go through the records of Flemington race course, we find that in 16/03/2013, Black Caviar won 1000m in 0:55.420.  On 02/03/2013, Loveyamadly won 1100m by 1:02.150.  After a long time gap, in 2001, Iglesia won 1200m by 1:07.60.