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
Camperdown Country Park made news headlines in 1986 when "Jeremy", its female European brown bear, bit the arm off ten-year-old Ross Prendergast, who had sneaked into the park after hours. A campaign was launched to stop the bear being put down. The bear enclosure has been enlarged since the incident, and there are now two different bears at the park. Camperdown Country Park has an 18-hole golf course. It is 6548 yards in length. It was opened in 1959 and became a very popular golf course. During the 1970s the course held the British Police Championship, and (with the Downfield Golf Course) the