2017 Canberra, Wangaratta & Esperance Cup Day

CANBERRA

State/Territory: Australian Capital Territory
Founded: 1913
Population: 381,488

Canberra is the capital city of Australia and is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory, 280 km south-west of Sydney, and 660 km north-east of Melbourne. A resident of Canberra is known as a "Canberran".

Before white settlement, the area in which Canberra would eventually be constructed was seasonally inhabited by Indigenous Australians. Anthropologist Norman Tindale suggested the principal group occupying the region were the Ngunnawal people, while the Ngarigo lived immediately to the south of the ACT, the Wandandian to the east, the Walgulu also to the south, Gandangara people to the north, and Wiradjuri to the north west. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the region includes inhabited rock shelters, rock paintings and engravings, burial places, camps and quarry sites, and stone tools and arrangements. Artefacts suggests early human activity occurred at some point in the area 21,000 years previously. The word "Canberra" is popularly claimed to derive from the word Kambera or Canberry, which is claimed to mean "meeting place" in Ngunnawal, one of the Indigenous languages spoken in the district by Aboriginal people before European settlers arrived.

Canberra Racecourse

Circumference: 1,815m
Straight Length: 400m
Straight Width: 25m
Barrier Positions: 1000m, 1200m, 1300m, 1400m, 1600m, 2000m
Today's Weather: Fine
Today's Track Condition: Slow
Today's Rail Position: +3m Entire Circuit
Penetrometer: 4.63

Canberra Racecourse, also known as Thoroughbred Park is one of the most modern racetracks in Australia and is designed to provide the highest level of safety on a surface that will deliver highly competitive and bias free racing.
The course features two race tracks, the turf course proper and the all-weather Acton Track.
Facilities at the Canberra Racecourse is second to none. Canberra Racecourse offering the best of both worlds with the freedom and tranquility of the countryside, a beautiful view, unlimited free parking and situated only five minutes from the heart of the City.
The Canberra Racing Club hosts numerous race meetings annually. Its major meetings being the Canberra Cup and Black Opal Stakes.

WANGARATTA

State/Territory: Victoria
Founded: 1838
Population: 18,158

Wangaratta is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, approximately 250 km from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city is located at the junction of the Ovens and King rivers, which drain the northwestern slopes of the Victorian Alps. The original inhabitants of the area were the Pangerang peoples (Pallanganmiddang, WayWurru, Waveroo), who spoke a Gunai language. Many of the Pangerang were killed in the Gippsland massacres.
The first European explorers to pass through the Wangaratta area were Hume and Hovell (1824) who named the Oxley Plains immediately south of Wangaratta.

Wangaratta Racecourse

Circumference: 1,730m
Straight Length: 300m
Straight Width: 20m
Barrier Positions: 1000m, 1170m, 1200m, 1400m, 1800m, 2000m
Today's Weather: Fine
Today's Track Condition: Good
Today's Rail Position: True Entire Circuit
Penetrometer: 5.07

Wangaratta Racecourse is at Osboldstone Road, Wangaratta, Vic and is home to Wangaratta Turf Club.
Racing began in 1845 at North Wangaratta, ten years later the club moved to its present site.
The Wangaratta Racecourse was designed along similar lines to Flemington Racecourse.
The first Wangaratta Cup was run in 1904.

ESPERANCE

State/Territory: Western Australia
Founded: 1893
Population: 9,919

Esperance is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, on the Southern Ocean coastline approximately 720 kilometres east-southeast of the state capital, Perth. Its major industries are tourism, agriculture, and fishing. European history of the region dates back to 1627 when the Dutch vessel Gulden Zeepaert, skippered by François Thijssen, passed through waters off the Esperance coast and continuing across the Great Australian Bight.
French explorers are credited with making the first landfall near the present day town, naming it and other local landmarks whilst sheltering from a storm in this area in 1792. The town itself was named after a French ship, the Espérance, commanded by Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. Espérance, is French for 'hope'.
In 1802, British navigator Matthew Flinders sailed the Bay of Isles, discovering and naming places such as Lucky Bay and Thistle Cove. Whalers, sealers and pirates followed, as did pastoralists and miners, keen to exploit the free land and cash in on the gold boom in the gold fields to the north.
The area of the Esperance townsite was first settled by the Dempsters, a pioneer family of Scottish descent, in the 1870s. A telegraph station was opened in 1876, although the formal gazettal of the townsite did not occur until 1893.

Esperance Racecourse

Circumference: 1,900m
Straight Length: 460m
Straight Width: 25m
Barrier Positions: 1000m, 1100m, 1200m, 1300m, 1400m, 1600m
Today's Weather: Fine
Today's Track Condition: Good
Today's Rail Position: True Entire Circuit
Penetrometer: Unavailable

Racing has been a large part of the Esperance Community for more than 100 years, being conducted at various locations, such as Pink Lake, Bow's Farm and the "old" racecourse on Lake Road.
1984 saw the move to the present day location on Fisheries Rd, near Bandy Creek. The EBTC now boast a 1900m grass track which is equal to any grass track in country W.A.