Geelong Racecourse: Home of the Geelong Cup!

Geelong Racecourse is a major regional racecourse in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. Geelong Racecourse is well-known for its annual staging of the famed Geelong Cup.

The Geelong Cup is an annual Australian Group 3 thoroughbred horse race. The race is open to horses of all ages and sexes. The race is held over a distance of 2,400 metres at the Geelong Racecourse on the fourth Wednesday of October each year.

Geelong Racecourse Description

• The Geelong Racecourse boasts of a spacious racecourse that has a 400-metre straight and a 2,043-metre circumference.

• Races are run in an anti-clockwise fashion.

• The racecourse has sweeping turns.

Geelong Racecourse also has the new Geelong ThoroughTrack, an all-weather racecourse located in the inner area of the existing racecourse. Replacing the old turf inner course, the Geelong ThoroughTreck has an all-weather synthetic surface that has been greeted with approval from the entire horse racing community in Victoria, as well as in Australia as a whole. Aside from its synthetic surface, Geelong ThoroughTrack also boasts of plastic running rails, new design barrier stalls and coloured saddlecloths.

Geelong ThoroughTrack is 1,850 metres in circumference with a 380 metre final straight. It has start distances of 1000m, 1100m, 1200m, 1250m, 1300m, 1550m (turf start), 1900m, 2000m, 2100m and 2200m.

Geelong Racecourse History

• In May 1841, Geelong staged its inaugural race meeting at Corio.

• In 1844, the first official annual Geelong race meeting was conducted. There were several locations used for those meetings, among them Fyansford, North Shore, Belmont, Lara, Birregurra, Inverleigh, Leigh Road, Winchelsea, Moriac, Meredith, Queenscliff, Portarlington, Drysdale and Torquay.

• In 1849, a 727-acre site on flats beside the Barwon River was chosen for the Marshalltown racecourse.

• In 1872, the first Geelong Cup was held.

• In 1907, the racecourse and the showgrounds were relocated to its present site on Breakwater Road.

• In December 1908, the inaugural meeting at the Geelong Racecourse was held.

• Throughout the years, Geelong Racecourse has seen many upgrades and renovations, including the provision of a third grandstand and the construction of the synthetic surfaced ThoroughTrack.