The Illustrious Home of the W.S. Cox Plate!

Moonee Valley Racecourse is a horse racecourse in Melbourne, Australia which hosts year-round thoroughbred horse races and harness racing events.

Moonee Valley Racecourse is located six kilom etres from the Melbourne Central Business D istrict, in the suburb of Moonee Ponds, in the City of Moonee Valley. It is the home of the Moonee Valley Racing Club.

Moonee Valley Racecourse is home to Australia's best race - the Group 1 $3 million W.S. Cox Plate (2,040 metres). It is run in late October and is open to three-year-olds and over. The Cox Plate has been won by greats of the Australian turf including Sunline, Northerly, Kingston Town, Phar Lap and Makybe Diva.

Moonee Valley Description

Moonee Valley Racecourse boasts of a rectangular course, with a circumference of 1,805 m etres and a finishing straight of 173 metres. Moonee Valley Racecourse is therefore the shortest in Australia.

The surface at Moonee Valley Racecourse is made of the StrathAyr Turf System. It has a lower layer of sand and an upper rootzone layer reinforced with mesh elements. Horse racing takes place in an anti-clockwise direction, as it does on all Victorian tracks.

A 965-metre harness racecourse located inside the turf course is the main metropolitan racecourse for harness racing in Victoria.

The Moonee Valley Racecourse grandstands have 12 function rooms, which on non-racedays, can cater for up to 1,200 people.

Moonee Valley History

• In 1882, William Samuel Cox took a seven-year lease for a property nestled in a valley a mere six kilometres north of the city of Melbourne. He set about transforming the land into a racecourse. He named it 'Moonee Valley'.

• On 15 September 1883, Moonee Valley Racecourse held its first meeting.

• In 1895, upon the death of W.S. Cox, his son Archie became secretary.

• In 1905, Arthur Vaughan, Archie's brother-in-law, took over and became one of the greatest racing administrators in the history of Victoria.

• In 1922, the W.S. Cox Plate was first run. From its inauguration, the Cox Plate has been acknowledged as one of the classic events in international horse racing. The first race was run by Violencello.

• In 1999, the Cox Plate was included in the list of the world's greatest races.