- Moonee Valley Racing Club
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The Moonee Valley Racing Club (MVRC) is located at the Moonee Valley racecourse on McPherson Street, Moonee Ponds (a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia). It is one of three racing clubs in the Melbourne metropolitan area; the others are the Victoria Racing Club and the Melbourne Racing Club. Moonee Valley's first meeting was on 15 September 1883 at Feehan's Farm, the property of John F. Feehan. The land was purchased for the purpose of establishing a racetrack by William Samuel Cox, who was to become the first Secretary of the Moonee Valley Racing Club.
To recognise the founder of the club, in 1922 the Moonee Valley Racing Club inaugurated what was to become Australasia's weight-for-age horse-racing championship, the W.S. Cox Plate. Since 1999, the race has been included in the World Series of Racing. Among the list of winners of the Cox Plate are most of Australasia's champion race horses, including Phar Lap, Ajax, Tulloch, Kingston Town, Better Loosen Up, Sunline, Northerly and Makybe Diva.[1]
The club (which has always been at the forefront of innovation) was the first Australian metropolitan racing club to conduct night racing. The Moonee Valley Racing Club conducts 33 day and night race meetings each season. The premier jumps race held at Moonee Valley is the A.V. Hiskens Steeplechase during the last week of July. Besides staging race meetings, the club can cater for up to 1200 patrons in its 12 function rooms.
References
- ^ Past Cox Plate winners Retrieved 2011-06-24.
External links
Categories:- Horse racing organisations in Australia
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