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Say "Randwick" to most Sydneysiders and they'll think of the races before they think of the suburb. For generations the radio callers opened with "They're racing at Randwick", and the course has been sitting there off Alison Road since before the Eastern Suburbs were much more than sandhills and scrub. But the racecourse has been a lot more than a racetrack. It's been an army camp twice, a flu hospital, a testing ground for early flyers, a concert ground, and the place where three popes said Mass in front of crowds the size of a country town. The Queen came more than once, and she's the reason it gets to call itself Royal Randwick. This is the story of the place, from the old Sandy Course of 1833 to The Everest.
Before the Racecourse – Gadigal and Bidjigal Country
Long before anyone laid out a track, this was Aboriginal country. Today the Randwick area is remembered as the land of both the Bidjigal and the Gadigal people. Wikipedia's Bidjigal article notes that Randwick City Council and the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council have held the Koojay Corroboree on Coogee Beach since 2015 to commemorate "the Bidjigal and Gadigal people, who both inhabited the land". The names aren't completely settled, though. The same article says the historian Kohen has suggested there may have been some confusion between two separate groups, the Bidjigal of the Baulkham Hills area and the Bediagal around Botany Bay.
Wikipedia's Gadigal article describes the Gadigal as coastal people whose country, "Gadi", ran south of Port Jackson from South Head across to Marrickville and Petersham, with part of its southern edge on the Cooks River. The ground under Randwick still holds the evidence of that older life. When the light rail was built, more than 22,000 artefacts, including spearheads and cutting tools, turned up in a 100-metre-square area around the tram stabling yard in Randwick, and Bidjigal Elders fought to have the site protected. Construction went ahead, and over 21,000 artefacts were excavated and kept.
I couldn't find a source that says what the racecourse ground itself was used for before 1833, so I won't guess.
The Sandy Course – 1833
Sydney's racing started in Hyde Park. The Australian Turf Club's own history timeline says the first approved race meeting was held there in October 1810, with officers of the 73rd Regiment racing their horses. The ATC also passes on the old story that the ladies' grandstand was placed so Mrs Macquarie wouldn't get the sun in her eyes, and that's why New South Wales still races clockwise. It's a lovely yarn, and the ATC tells it as one ("the story goes").
By the early 1830s the gentlemen of the colony wanted a proper course. Mark Dunn's entry in the Dictionary of Sydney says that in December 1832 a group of them, including Sir John Jamison, asked Governor Richard Bourke to set aside land near the Botany Road. The Surveyor-General, Thomas Mitchell, went out with Edward Deas Thomson to look at the ground and saw no problem with it. Convicts laid out the track to a plan by the Assistant Surveyor, Mortimer Lewis. Wikipedia says Bourke designated the land in January 1833, and the ATC says the reserve covered 202 acres.
Everyone called it the "Sandy Course", which tells you all you need to know about the ground. Wikipedia says the first race there was a private one in June 1833. Randwick Council's Our Story site, quoting Joan Lawrence's Pictorial History Randwick, says that first race was a match between horses owned by Edward Fagan and Thomas Smithers, and Fagan won. The same source says the first registered race at the course, the Governor's Cup, was won in 1833 by Henry Bayley's imported horse Whisker.
It didn't last. Dunn says Randwick was too far out and the meetings got too rowdy, so Sydney's elite stopped coming and the course closed. The ATC says the track had become dangerous for the horses by 1838. Racing moved to Homebush, on William Charles Wentworth's land, and the old Sandy Course was left for training.
The Australian Jockey Club and the Return to Randwick – 1842 to 1860
The club that would run Randwick for the next 170 years began as the Australian Race Committee in 1840. The ATC timeline says the committee turned itself into the Australian Jockey Club, which met for the first time on 5 January 1842, with the Governor, Sir Maurice O'Connell, as patron. For its first years the AJC raced at Homebush.
Homebush had its problems. The ATC says the track was poor and the rent kept going up, so in 1858 the club settled on Randwick. The secretary, George Rowley, asked members to stand liable for £50 each to fix the track and build a grandstand, and fifteen of them put their hands up. Deas Thomson, who had helped choose the site back in the 1830s, was now the AJC's president. Dunn says the club cleared the scrub, laid turf, put up new running rails and built a timber grandstand for 700 people.
The first meeting at the new Randwick ran from 29 to 31 May 1860, and more than 6,000 people turned up on the first day. Paul Roberts and Isabelle Taylor, writing on racecourse architecture for Thoroughbred Racing Commentary, quote Bell's Life as saying the meeting "passed off without a hitch". That first grandstand, built of American timber, was meant to be temporary. Wikipedia credits it to the architect John Frederick Hilly, and it ended up standing for 15 years.
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Crown Land and a Peppercorn Rent
Here's something a lot of people don't know. The AJC never owned Randwick. Wikipedia describes the racecourse today as "Crown Land leased to the Australian Turf Club". The ATC timeline says that in 1863 the NSW Government granted the land to trustees for the AJC at an annual rent of "one black peppercorn payable on demand", and adds that nobody has ever come to collect it. Dunn says the AJC held a lease over 202 acres (81.7 hectares) by 1863, and that the Australian Jockey Club Act of 1873 stretched its seven-year lease to 21 years. Much later, as part of the 2008 World Youth Day deal, Wikipedia says the AJC's lease was extended by another 50 years.
The Grandstands – From Timber Shed to the QEII and the Winx Stand
Randwick has rebuilt itself again and again. Dunn lists the Derby Stand of 1865 and the St Leger Stand of 1867, then a bigger grandstand in 1875 that replaced the old 700-seater and came with private boxes, a reporters' room and a telegraph office. Between 1880 and 1886 the two 1860s stands were pulled down and replaced by a new St Leger Stand in 1882 and a new Official Stand in 1886.
That 1886 building is still there. Roberts and Taylor describe the Members' or Official Stand as brick, 33 metres long, with 450 seats upstairs and a bar, telegraph office and refreshment rooms underneath. Wikipedia says it was extended in 1907, 1914 and 1920. Randwick Council dates an "ornate Members Stand" to 1910, designed by Robertson and Marks, and says it's listed by the National Trust.
The early 1900s were Randwick's building boom. According to Roberts and Taylor, the grandstand and Members' Stand were extended between 1907 and 1914 until they were "unrecognisable". A Ladies' Stand went up in 1910 and a new St Leger Stand in 1911. In 1914 came the Tea House, 50 metres long and two storeys high, with room for more than 1,000 racegoers. Every one of those buildings was designed by the Sydney firm Robertson & Marks. One of its founding partners, Theodore Marks, was a keen punter and a long-time AJC member, which can't have hurt. Wikipedia adds that the Tea House burnt down in 1917 and was rebuilt to the same plans straight away.
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1917 – The Tote Comes to Randwick
The most unusual buildings on the course went up in 1917. A state law of 1916 allowed betting on the totalisator, and the AJC built a home for a Julius Totalisator, the machine invented by Sir George Julius that worked out odds and dividends mechanically. Roberts and Taylor say Robertson & Marks built two matching tote buildings behind the St Leger and Members' Stands, each with an octagon at either end topped by a little domed lantern. They were the fourth automatic totalisators installed anywhere in the world. One still stands. Wikipedia calls it the Saddling Paddock Tote Building, and these days it's a bar known as the Octagonal.
The Queen Elizabeth II Stand and the Big Rebuild
Roberts and Taylor say the hard years of the 1920s, the drought of the 1930s and the military occupation of the 1940s left Randwick run down. The modern era started in 1969 with the Queen Elizabeth II Stand, built between the old Grandstand and the Members' Stand. They describe it as utilitarian, and say it did "nothing to complement" the older buildings. In the 1980s the tired St Leger Stand and the old Grandstand were demolished. Wikipedia says the old Grandstand came down in 1988 to make way for a long, low, two-storey Paddock Stand, which the Queen opened in 1992.
The Paddock Stand only lasted 20 years. In 2012 it was demolished, the Tea House went with it, and the QEII Stand was stripped back to its bare frame. What reopened in 2013 was a single grandstand 110 metres long and six storeys high, with a new parade ring behind it called the Theatre of the Horse, which holds 4,500 people. Not everyone was happy. Roberts and Taylor say many people mourned the Tea House, the costs blew out, and the grandstand was only half finished on opening day in the 2013 autumn carnival.
The newest addition is named after a horse. Racing NSW says the two-level, $46.6 million WINX Stand was built for general admission racegoers and opened to racegoers on Villiers Stakes Day, 11 December. The announcement talks about bookings "throughout 2022", which puts the opening in December 2021. Wikipedia's Winx article, written earlier, said it would open in early 2022. It holds 7,500 people across both levels, and the upstairs bar is named after Happy Clapper, the horse that ran second to Winx five times.
Getting There – The Racecourse Trams
For most of its life you didn't drive to Randwick, you caught the tram. Dunn says the line from the city to the racecourse gates on Alison Road was the first extension of Sydney's tramway beyond the city boundary. It opened in time for the 1880 spring carnival, and by 1900 a separate loop station had been built just for the racecourse. On one day in 1934 the trams carried a record 117,480 passengers in 664 cars.
The ATC timeline adds a few more details. The last steam tram ran to the course in September 1910, and after that the electric trams could do the round trip from Central in 45 minutes. At the 1922 autumn carnival a crowd of about 90,000 turned up, and 498 trams were put on to carry them. On the same day the beer strike hit. The last tram to the racecourse, No. 1937, ran on 1 February 1960. Rail came back in 2019, when the light rail opened beside Royal Randwick.
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The Big Races
The AJC Derby
Wikipedia says the Derby was first run in 1861 as the AJC Randwick Derby Stakes, won by Kyogle. It was called the AJC Derby from 1873 to 1993 and officially became the Australian Derby in 1994, though most people still say AJC Derby. It was a spring race for more than a century. The ATC says the last spring winner was Belmura Lad in 1977, and the race moved to autumn, with Dulcify the first autumn winner in 1979. Phar Lap, Tulloch and Kingston Town all won it.
It's had its scandals too. Wikipedia says the official 1928 winner, Prince Humphrey, wasn't actually in the race. The horse that won was a ring-in called Cragsman, by the same sire but out of a different mare. It came out when Dick Tate of Toowoomba saw a photo of the winner and noticed the markings were wrong.
The Doncaster and the Epsom
The two big mile races came along in the 1860s. According to Wikipedia, the Epsom Handicap was run at Randwick from 1865 and the Doncaster Handicap was first run in 1866. The Epsom is the spring mile and the Doncaster the autumn one, and Super Impose is the only horse to have won both of them twice. Wikipedia has a couple of great Epsom stories. In 1897 Jim McHugh, aged 11 years and 4 months and weighing 27 kilos, won it on Robin Hood in only his second ride. Donald Nicholson won it five years running from 1880 to 1884.
The Sydney Cup, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and The Championships
The ATC says the first Sydney Cup was run in May 1866, possibly as an answer to the young Melbourne Cup, and was won by Yattendon. The gold cup the owners took home was the first gold cup ever given as a racing prize in Sydney, and it still exists. The Queen Elizabeth Stakes goes back even further. Wikipedia traces it to the Queen's Plate, first run in 1851 in honour of Queen Victoria.
These days the autumn carnival finishes with The Championships, two big days at Randwick with the Doncaster, the Derby, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Sydney Cup. Wikipedia says Randwick has held them since 2014, while the ATC timeline puts the start in 2015.
The Everest – 2017
The newcomer is the richest of the lot. The Everest was first run at Royal Randwick on 14 October 2017. The ATC says 33,000 people saw the sprinter Redzel win it. Wikipedia explains how it works. Twelve slots in the starting gate are sold for $700,000 each, and each slot holder then finds a horse to run. Wikipedia's Everest article says prize money went up to $15 million in 2018 and to $20 million in 2023, making it the richest turf race in the world. It became a Group 1 race in 2024. The race hasn't always been popular. In 2018 there were protests and a petition with more than 300,000 signatures when the barrier draw was projected onto the sails of the Opera House. The ATC says Everest Day 2024 was the first sell-out in the race's history, with a record 49,117 people on course.
The Champions
Phar Lap
Phar Lap was nothing much at first. Wikipedia says he finished last in his first race and didn't place in his next three. His first win came at Rosehill on 27 April 1929. Then he ran second in the Chelmsford Stakes at Randwick on 14 September 1929, and people started taking notice. The ATC says that in the spring of 1929 he won the AJC Derby in record time.
Bernborough
Bernborough's story is half racing and half mystery. The Victoria Racing Club's history piece says that because of shady dealings over his ownership, he was only allowed to race at Clifford Park in Toowoomba until he was five. After he was sold in Sydney to the restaurateur Azzalin Romano and sent to the trainer Harry Plant, he won 15 races in a row, all with Athol Mulley up. The VRC says the first three of those wins were at Randwick. He took the Chelmsford Stakes there in September 1946 as well.
Tulloch and Kingston Town
Both were trained by Tommy Smith. Wikipedia says that when Tulloch won the 1957 AJC Derby by six lengths from Prince Darius, he broke the track record Phar Lap had held since 1929 by 2.1 seconds. Kingston Town won the AJC Derby and the Sydney Cup in the autumn of 1980. Wikipedia says that between June 1979 and August 1982 he won 21 races from 21 starts in Sydney.
Black Caviar and Winx
Randwick has also seen the end of two unbeaten runs. The ATC says Black Caviar ran her last race in the T. J. Smith Stakes at Royal Randwick in 2013, which made it 25 wins from 25 starts. Six years later it was Winx's turn. On 13 April 2019 she won the Queen Elizabeth Stakes for the third time, her 33rd win in a row. Racing NSW puts the sold-out crowd that day at 43,833, and the ATC says over 43,000.
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Royal Visits
The royal connection goes back a long way. Randwick Council says Queen Victoria's son, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited the racecourse during his royal tour in 1868.
6 February 1954 – The Queen at Randwick
The Queen's first visit was during her big 1954 tour, soon after her coronation. Wikipedia says she was at Randwick on 6 February 1954, and the AJC named a new race in her honour, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. The winner was a 33-to-1 outsider, Blue Ocean, who set a track record of 2 minutes 27¾ seconds for the mile and a half. The ATC says Blue Ocean was ridden by Arthur Podmore and beat some of the best horses of the day, and his connections got their trophies from the Queen herself.
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1970 and 1992 – A Stand and a Title
Randwick Council says the new stand finished in 1969 was named the Queen Elizabeth grandstand, and that the Queen came back in 1970 and again in 1992.
The 1992 visit is the one that counts. Wikipedia says that on 22 February 1992 the Queen opened the new Paddock Stand and, at the club's request, gave the course permission to call itself Royal Randwick. The ATC says the AJC had been writing letters and making direct appeals for years. Wikipedia quotes a letter to the club from Kenneth Scott, the Queen's Deputy Private Secretary, written that day. He said the Queen "was particularly glad that she was able, on this occasion, to legitimise your traditional title of 'Royal' and to open a very handsome new Grandstand." The ATC puts the crowd at 25,790, and the Deseret News reported "nearly 26,000". The champion miler Super Impose raced that day too.
So Randwick has been officially "Royal" since February 1992. Every source I found agrees on that. What happened in 2011 was the merger that created the Australian Turf Club, which I come to below.
Papal Masses on the Racecourse
Randwick has hosted papal Masses in 1970, 1986, 1995 and 2008. The crowds were huge, and the estimates always got argued over, so I've put each figure next to the source that gave it.
Pope Paul VI – 1 and 2 December 1970
Paul VI was the first pope ever to visit Australia, and he spent all four days of his visit in Sydney. Totus2us, which publishes his speeches, has him celebrating Mass at Randwick on Tuesday 1 December 1970. In his homily he spoke of Captain Cook's arrival at Botany Bay 200 years earlier and said that "Australia was already inhabited at that time, and We are pleased to greet the representatives of those inhabitants".
Nobody could agree on the crowd. Writing in Christianity Today in 1971, Leon Morris called it "a funny sort of numbers game". He said one estimate for the Randwick Mass was 250,000, another 200,000 and another 150,000. The next day the Pope came back to the track for a special youth Mass. A United Press report, printed in the University of Notre Dame's student paper The Observer, called it "the Pope's second appearance at the track in 15 hours" and said he spoke to 150,000 young people in 80-degree heat.
Pope John Paul II – 26 November 1986
John Paul II came on his whirlwind 1986 tour. The Sydney Morning Herald, looking back in 2005, says almost a million people saw him in Sydney on 26 November that year, and that he celebrated an evening Mass at Randwick racecourse "in front of about 250,000 people". The ATC says an altar was set up in the middle of the course, and the crowd filled the grandstands and every bit of open ground.
Mary MacKillop's Beatification – January 1995
John Paul II came back to Randwick to beatify Mary MacKillop. Wikipedia gives the date as 19 January 1995. The Herald says Aboriginal people welcomed him at the racecourse, among them Aden Ridgeway, later a senator, and the late Mum Shirl, and gave him a smoking ceremony. He told the crowd, "In Mary MacKillop, all Australians have the sign of the flowering of holiness in their midst."
Pope Benedict XVI – World Youth Day, 19 and 20 July 2008
The biggest of them all was World Youth Day 2008. Wikipedia says around 235,000 pilgrims walked 10 kilometres on Saturday 19 July, from the Mary MacKillop Chapel in North Sydney, over the Harbour Bridge and across the city, to an all-night vigil at Randwick. About 250,000 slept out on the course that night.
The figures for the final Mass on Sunday 20 July depend on who you ask. Wikipedia gives 300,000 to 400,000. It says Reuters reported up to 300,000, while World Youth Day's chief operating officer, Danny Casey, and other media said more than 400,000. Randwick Council says "over 400 000". The ATC says some 400,000 people filled both the racecourse and Centennial Parklands. At the end of the Mass, Pope Benedict announced that the next World Youth Day would be in Madrid.
Not everyone wanted the Pope at Randwick. Wikipedia says the racing industry fought the choice of venue and argued that Sydney Olympic Park would be better. In the end the federal and state governments stepped in with compensation, and racing moved to Warwick Farm and Rosehill for a few weeks. Wikipedia's World Youth Day article puts the compensation at $42 million, and its Randwick Racecourse article says $40 million. The track survived. An AJC spokesman said it "seems to have held up well".
Soldiers, Flu and Flying Machines
Both world wars came to Randwick. Dunn says the army used the racecourse as a camp for soldiers waiting to sail in World War I and again in World War II, with tents in the infield and temporary buildings on parts of the site. Racing carried on, and the AJC gave some of its profits to patriotic funds. The ATC says its World War I donations came to more than £80,000. The money went to the Bluebirds, a group of nurses working in France outside the official medical units, as well as the French government, the Red Cross and relief funds for Poland and Belgium. Randwick Council says land at both Randwick and the nearby Kensington Racecourse was handed to the military for training and barracks, and that during World War II racing at Randwick was cut back to one meeting a month. The ATC says Randwick was partly occupied in 1944 and some meetings moved to Rosehill. The council also says the Big Stable at Newmarket, just down the road, was used as a detention barracks during that war.
Straight after the first war came the Spanish flu. The ATC says the Tea House was handed over to the Ministry for Public Health and used as a flu hospital for five months in 1919.
The open ground was handy for flying, too. The ATC notes that Harry Hawker used Randwick for a trial flight in February 1914. Dunn says the course was used in 1928 for the landing in Sydney of Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm in the Southern Cross after their flight across the Pacific. Wikipedia's article on the plane tells it differently. It says they landed at Eagle Farm in Brisbane on 9 June, flew on to Sydney the next day, and were met by a big crowd at Mascot.
Banjo, Film Crews and Future Music
Banjo Paterson was a regular at Randwick. Dunn says he rode in steeplechases, wrote a weekly racing column for the Sydney Mail and wrote at least one poem about the Randwick races, "The Oracle", in 1917. Women had to wait a long time for their place on the course. The ATC says Lesley Bellden became the first woman to ride a winner at Randwick, on Mystic Mahal in April 1983.
The course has had plenty of other uses. Wikipedia says it turns up in films, including Mission: Impossible 2, and the University of New South Wales uses it as an exam hall. The Future Music Festival started there in 2006 as a one-day event and was held at the racecourse until it was scrapped after 2015 because of poor ticket sales.
Equine Flu and COVID – 2007 to 2021
Twice this century, racing at Randwick has been shut down or emptied out. The ATC says equine influenza reached thoroughbreds in August 2007, and the NSW spring carnival was cancelled. Racing came back in Sydney on 1 December, with more than 20,000 people there.
Then came COVID-19. The ATC says racing kept going in 2020 under strict biosecurity rules, and both the Golden Slipper and The Championships were run without a crowd for the first time. In 2021 the ABC reported that The Everest on 16 October 2021 was the state's first major event out of lockdown. After the ATC lobbied the government, the crowd limit was doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 double-vaccinated racegoers, who had to check in, show their vaccination certificates and wear masks. The racing minister, Kevin Anderson, called it "the race breaking hibernation".
2011 – The Australian Turf Club
After almost 170 years, the AJC disappeared in a merger. Wikipedia says an Ernst & Young report in June 2009 recommended combining the AJC and the Sydney Turf Club to save Sydney racing. AJC members voted for the merger, and STC members voted against it, but the STC board went ahead anyway. The Australian Jockey and Sydney Turf Clubs Merger Act 2010 created the Australian Turf Club, which came into being on 7 February 2011. Races.com.au reported that the first race day under the new club would be at Royal Randwick on Wednesday 9 February 2011. It also reported that the government had put together a $174 million package for Sydney racing, and that the ATC was about to start a $150 million redevelopment of Randwick.
Wikipedia says the ATC now runs Randwick, Rosehill Gardens, Canterbury Park and Warwick Farm, has its offices at Randwick, and still keeps the Australian Stud Book that the AJC started. Randwick itself is still Crown land leased to the club.
Timeline
- Oct 1810 – First approved race meeting in Hyde Park.
- Dec 1832 – Sir John Jamison and others ask Governor Bourke for a racecourse near the Botany Road.
- 1833 – The Sandy Course is laid out at Randwick. First race (a private match) in June.
- 1838 – Racing stops. The track is too dangerous (ATC). Wikipedia says 1840.
- 5 Jan 1842 – The Australian Jockey Club meets for the first time.
- 1858 – The AJC picks Randwick to replace Homebush.
- 29–31 May 1860 – First AJC meeting at Randwick. More than 6,000 come on the first day.
- 1861 – First AJC Derby (as the AJC Randwick Derby Stakes).
- 1863 – The Crown land is granted to AJC trustees for one peppercorn a year.
- 1865–66 – First Epsom, Doncaster and Sydney Cup.
- 1868 – The Duke of Edinburgh visits.
- 1873 – The Australian Jockey Club Act extends the lease to 21 years.
- 1880 – The tramway reaches the racecourse.
- 1886 – The Official (Members') Stand is built.
- 1910–1914 – The Ladies' Stand, St Leger Stand and Tea House go up, all by Robertson & Marks.
- 1914–18 – Military camp, and more than £80,000 donated to war charities.
- 1917 – The Julius tote buildings open, fourth in the world.
- 1919 – The Tea House becomes a flu hospital.
- 1929 – Phar Lap wins the AJC Derby.
- 1934 – Record day of 117,480 tram passengers.
- 1939–45 – Military occupation, and one meeting a month.
- 6 Feb 1954 – The Queen at Randwick for the first Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
- 1957 – Tulloch breaks Phar Lap's Derby record.
- 1 Feb 1960 – The last tram to the racecourse.
- 1969 – The Queen Elizabeth II Stand opens.
- 1 Dec 1970 – Pope Paul VI's Mass, then a youth Mass the next day.
- 1979 – The Derby moves to autumn.
- 1980 – Kingston Town wins the Derby and Sydney Cup.
- 26 Nov 1986 – Pope John Paul II's evening Mass.
- 22 Feb 1992 – The Queen opens the Paddock Stand and grants the title "Royal Randwick".
- 19 Jan 1995 – Mary MacKillop is beatified at Randwick.
- 2006 – The first Future Music Festival.
- 2007 – Equine influenza cancels the spring carnival.
- 19–20 Jul 2008 – World Youth Day vigil and final Mass with Pope Benedict XVI.
- 7 Feb 2011 – The AJC and STC merge into the Australian Turf Club.
- 2012–13 – The Paddock Stand and Tea House are demolished, and the QEII Grandstand is rebuilt.
- 2013 – Black Caviar's last race makes it 25 from 25.
- 2014 or 2015 – The Championships begin.
- 14 Oct 2017 – The first Everest, won by Redzel.
- 2019 – Winx's 33rd straight win. The light rail opens.
- 2020 – The Championships are run without a crowd.
- 16 Oct 2021 – The Everest is NSW's first major event out of lockdown.
- Dec 2021 – The WINX Stand opens.
- 2024 – The Everest becomes Group 1 and draws a record 49,117.
Where the Sources Disagree
- When the Sandy Course closed: the Dictionary of Sydney, the ATC and Randwick Council say 1838. Wikipedia says racing stopped in 1840.
- When racing came back: Dunn writes "Racing returned to Randwick in 1858" but gives the first meeting as 29–31 May 1860. The ATC says 1858 was when the AJC chose Randwick. Everyone agrees on the May 1860 meeting.
- Granted or leased? Wikipedia's Randwick Racecourse article says the land was "officially granted" to the AJC in 1863. The same article calls it "Crown Land leased to the Australian Turf Club", the ATC talks of a peppercorn rent on Crown land, and Dunn describes a lease that was extended by Act of Parliament in 1873.
- The Members' Stand: Wikipedia and Roberts and Taylor date it to 1886 with later extensions, and Randwick Council says 1910. I couldn't find any source that dates the Members' Stand to 1917. The 1917 date belongs to the totalisator buildings beside it.
- The 1992 grandstand: Wikipedia and Roberts and Taylor say the Queen opened the Paddock Stand in 1992. Randwick Council says she opened "the new grandstand named in her honour", and the QEII Stand had already been built in 1969.
- When it got its royal nickname: the Deseret News (1992) said it was nicknamed "Royal Randwick" after the Queen "dedicated a grandstand in 1954". Roberts and Taylor date the QEII Stand to 1969. Everyone agrees the title became official in February 1992, not 2011.
- Crowds on 22 February 1992: the ATC says 25,790, and the Deseret News said "nearly 26,000".
- How many papal Masses: Dunn writes of three papal Masses, in 1970, 1987 and 2008. The Herald, the ATC and Randwick Council put John Paul II's Mass in 1986 and add the 1995 beatification Mass as well.
- Paul VI's crowd, 1970: 250,000, 200,000 or 150,000, according to the three estimates quoted by Leon Morris. A UPI report gave 150,000 for the separate youth Mass the next day. Dunn says each papal Mass drew more than 200,000.
- John Paul II's crowd, 1986: about 250,000 (Sydney Morning Herald, 2005). Dunn says more than 200,000.
- The final Mass, 2008: 300,000 to 400,000 (Wikipedia). Reuters said up to 300,000. Danny Casey of World Youth Day said more than 400,000. Randwick Council says over 400,000. The ATC says some 400,000 across the racecourse and Centennial Parklands.
- The 2008 compensation: $42 million (Wikipedia, "World Youth Day 2008") or $40 million (Wikipedia, "Randwick Racecourse").
- Tulloch's record: Wikipedia's Tulloch article says he took "2 seconds" off Phar Lap's Derby record in one place and "2.1 seconds" in another.
- The Everest prize money: Wikipedia's Everest article says prize money went up to $15 million in 2018. Wikipedia's Randwick Racecourse article and the ATC both give $15 million for the first running in 2017.
- Winx's last crowd: 43,833 (Racing NSW) or "over 43,000" (ATC).
- The Championships: held since 2014 (Wikipedia) or since 2015 (ATC).
- The Southern Cross in 1928: Dunn says the racecourse was used for Kingsford Smith and Ulm's landing in Sydney. Wikipedia's Southern Cross article has them landing at Eagle Farm in Brisbane and being welcomed by a crowd at Mascot when they reached Sydney.
- Bidjigal or Bediagal: Wikipedia's Bidjigal article says Kohen has suggested two separate groups may have been confused.
My Earlier Posts
- Randwick – How Simeon Pearce's Village Began – From Bidjigal Country to the Steam Trams
- Newmarket Precinct – Young Street – Randwick
- Newmarket House – 7 Young Street – Randwick
- Sherbrooke House – 20 Coogee Bay Road – Randwick
- Montepellier – Randwick
- Swan Aisle – 87 Darley Road – Randwick
- St Jude's Cemetery – Avoca Street – Randwick
- Frenchmans Road – Randwick
- Sacred Heart Monastery – 1 Roma Avenue – Kensington
- Sydney Trams – From Horse Trams to Light Rail
- The Coogee Pier – 1928–1934
- The Old Moore Park Zoo
- The Sydney Common – Moore Parklands
- The Centennial Park Eel
- Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel – Mount Street – North Sydney
- St Mary's Cathedral – College Street
- Historic Sydney Mansions: Newmarket House – 7 Young Street – Randwick
- Historic Sydney Mansions: Normanhurst House – Alison Road & Cowper Street – Randwick
- Historic Sydney Mansions: Sherbrooke House – Randwick
- Historic Sydney Mansions: Montpellier – Randwick
- Historic Sydney Mansions: Earlswood – 54 Dutruc Street – Randwick
- Historic Sydney Mansions: Nugal Hall – Milford Street – Randwick
- Historic Sydney Mansions: Cliffbrook – Coogee
Sources
- Mark Dunn, "Randwick racecourse", Dictionary of Sydney, 2008: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/randwick_racecourse
- Australian Turf Club, "History Timeline": https://devappcdn.australianturfclub.com.au/history-timeline/
- Paul Roberts and Isabelle Taylor, "Racecourse architecture: Royal Randwick", Thoroughbred Racing Commentary: https://www.thoroughbredracing.com/articles/2181/racecourse-architecture-royal-randwick/
- Randwick City Council, Our Story, "Royal Randwick Racecourse": https://ourstory.randwick.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/10530
- Randwick City Council, Our Story, "Horse Racing" (quoting Joan Lawrence, Pictorial History Randwick, 2001): https://ourstory.randwick.nsw.gov.au/nodes/view/3590
- Wikipedia, "Randwick Racecourse": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randwick_Racecourse
- Wikipedia, "Australian Turf Club": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Turf_Club
- Wikipedia, "Bidjigal": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidjigal
- Wikipedia, "Gadigal": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadigal
- Wikipedia, "Australian Derby": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Derby
- Wikipedia, "Doncaster Handicap": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doncaster_Handicap
- Wikipedia, "Epsom Handicap": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsom_Handicap
- Wikipedia, "The Everest": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Everest
- Wikipedia, "Queen Elizabeth Stakes (ATC)": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_Stakes_(ATC)
- Wikipedia, "Phar Lap": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phar_Lap
- Wikipedia, "Tulloch (horse)": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulloch_(horse)
- Wikipedia, "Kingston Town (horse)": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingston_Town_(horse)
- Wikipedia, "Winx (horse)": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winx_(horse)
- Wikipedia, "World Youth Day 2008": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Youth_Day_2008
- Wikipedia, "Mary MacKillop": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_MacKillop
- Wikipedia, "Southern Cross (aircraft)": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_(aircraft)
- Wikipedia, "Future Music Festival": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Music_Festival
- Victoria Racing Club, "Brilliant Bernborough": https://www.vrc.com.au/latest-news/brilliant-bernborough/
- Racing NSW, "Australian Turf Club and Racing NSW unveil new Winx Stand at Royal Randwick": https://www.racingnsw.com.au/news/latest-racing-news/australian-turf-club-and-racing-nsw-unveil-new-winx-stand-at-royal-randwick/
- Races.com.au, "AJC and STC merge finalised – Australian Turf Club to start Monday", 5 February 2011: https://www.races.com.au/2011/02/05/ajc-and-stc-merge-finalised-australian-turf-club-to-start-monday/
- Deseret News, "Racetrack officially 'Royal'", 23 February 1992: https://www.deseret.com/1992/2/23/18969261/racetrack-officially-royal/
- Totus2us, "St Paul VI's 1970 Pilgrimage to Australia" (itinerary and Randwick homily): http://www.totus2us.co.uk/universal/australia/st-pvi-pilgrim-visit-1970/
- Leon Morris, "The Protestants and the Pope", Christianity Today, February 1971: https://www.christianitytoday.com/1971/02/current-religious-thought-protestants-and-pope/
- "Pope addresses Australian youth" (UPI), The Observer, University of Notre Dame, 3 December 1970: https://archives.nd.edu/observer/1970-12-03_v05_055.pdf
- "Warmth that touched a nation", Sydney Morning Herald, 3 April 2005: https://www.smh.com.au/world/warmth-that-touched-a-nation-20050403-gdl1ya.html
- ABC News, "Race day NSW's first big event out of lockdown...", 16 October 2021: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-16/spring-racing-carnival-crowd-size-increased-double-vaccinated/100544720
- Wikimedia Commons file pages for each picture (dates and descriptions from the State Library of NSW, State Records NSW and Powerhouse Museum): https://commons.wikimedia.org/