Flemington Racecourse The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861. In 1871 the Victoria Racing Club Act was passed, giving the VRC legal control over Flemington Racecourse. The racecourse is shaped not unlike a pear, and boasts a six-furlong (1,200 m) straight known as 'the Straight Six.' The track has a circumference of and a final straight of for race distances over . Races are run in an anti-clockwise direction. The course has a crowd capacity of over 120,000 and contains three grandstands. The biggest ever attendance was on Victoria Derby Day in 2006 when 129,069 people saw Efficient win the Victoria
Ellis Park Race Course for seven-furlong and one-mile (1.6 km) races. A one-mile (1.6 km) turf course was installed in 1993. The facility is and has a 6,000-seat grandstand and 38 barns. It is the only track in the country to contain a one-mile (1.6 km) chute at a 90-degree angle by the first turn. This is because Saratoga Race Course used to have this type of chute to run one-mile (1.6 km) races, called the Wilson Chute. Ellis Park Race Course Ellis Park is a thoroughbred racetrack in Henderson, Kentucky, just south of Evansville, Indiana. It is owned and operated by Saratoga Casino