Sandown racecourse is the second most significant of the courses that the Melbourne Racing Club utilises.

Sandown has two tracks which effectively part at the end of the back straight and re-join into the home running.

The extended course is known as the Hillside track and the older, traditional one is the Lakeside course.

Sandown has for many years been the ‘workhorse’ of the Victorian industry hosting many midweek cards each season.

Opened in 1965, it is situated around the Springvale area of the City of Greater Dandenong.

The biggest races held at Sandown each year are those on Zipping Classic day the week after the Flemington Spring carnival ends.

They hold the G2 Zipping Classic and G2 Sandown Guineas plus G3 races such as the Eclipse Stakes, Sandown Stakes, Summoned Stakes and Kevin Heffernan Stakes.

The Zipping Classic is a WFA race over 2400m and used to be the Sandown Cup/Classic but was renamed after the grand horse who won the race four straight times.

For sprint races there is a 1000m chute but much of the racing begins in the back straight from 1200m all the way up to 1800m. Staying races begin in the home straight up to 2400m.

Another aspect of Sandown is that it holds jumps racing and is the only metro track in Melbourne still doing so. The Crisp Steeplechase and Grand Nationals are run there.

A non-horse racing feature of Sandown is the motor racing track around the outside of the racecourse which hosts Sandown Raceway.

The Sandown 500 is the endurance race for V8 Supercars that is the biggest race there annually and used to be lead up to the Bathurst 1000. That date has changed though.