HAMILTON Racing Club celebrated 150 years of horse racing at its present site in Hamilton on Saturday night with a dinner that was well supported, as attendees looked back on the history of the racecourse and the grandstand in particular.

The grandstand is of architectural significance as one of the earliest surviving grandstands in Victoria and is significant as a sophisticated example of grandstand design with its turrets giving the structure a distinctively exotic appearance.

The structure is of historical significance for its associations with the history of horse racing in Victoria and with Robert Bagot, the designer of not only Hamilton’s grand stand but also grandstands in Melbourne at Flemington Racecourse, among others at Stawell, Fitzroy, Camperdown, Glenferrie Oval, and the Queen Elizabeth Oval in Bendigo.

The grandstand is a rare example of an early racetrack structure, and it reflects the increasing popularity of the sport and the need for the club to provide comfortable facilities at the racecourse, to accommodate women in particular.

It was completed in 1874 and was specially lit on Saturday night in recognition of its significance to the racecourse across 150 years.

Currently there are approximately 70 members of the Hamilton Racing Club and the course hosts nine meetings each year, with the highlight being the annual Hamilton Cup meeting held in October each year as part of Victoria’s Spring carnival.

When mentioning the Hamilton Cup, the grand old stager, Puramaka, comes to mind, as he won four cups in between 1977 and 1980, a feat which could stand forever.

Speakers at the dinner included club life member, Robert Hunter, who went on to administer the sport over 40 years across Victoria including at the Victoria Racing Club,  along with former Hamilton racecourse manager, John Donnelly, who also managed courses in Dunkeld, Coleraine, Penshurst, Hamilton, and currently in Casterton, and Charles ‘Chas’ Armytage, who was Country Racing Victoria chairman and was a Hamilton Racing Club committee member for 27 years.

Although the grandstand is heritage listed and the external structure cannot be changed, underneath the stand was rejuvenated and renovated in the 1980s.

Heritage Victoria doesn’t supply funding to maintain the stand, but the club has multiple fundraising packages available for the public to support this wonderful structure going forward into the future.

The first horse races were held at Hamilton in 1854 and in 1859 the present site of the racecourse was reserved temporarily.

A further area was reserved in 1861 and the total area reserved permanently in 1874.

In 1860 the Hamilton Turf Club was established, then declined and was revived in 1867 as the Western Racing Club, later merging with other clubs to form the Hamilton Racing Club.