Sandown has undergone a facelift in recent weeks as it hosts the major autumn meetings while construction continues at Caulfield on the new inner track.
The members areas have undergone works to bring them into the 2020’s, but one of the biggest changes is the installation of a second winning post.
To keep some of the traditional distances of sprint races that are held at Caulfield, the Melbourne Racing Club has created a second winning post, 80m past the existing one to cater for 1100m races.
Caulfield stages the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate at 1100m while there are divisions of the Blue Diamond Prelude at that trip ahead of the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes at 1200m.
To be able to stage those races, the start has been pushed back 20m into the chute at Sandown and then 80m past the winning post.
It is not the first time that the Oakleigh Plate will be staged at Sandown.
In 1996, with options being either 1000m or 1200m, the Club sought permission to run the race over 1150m which was the safest trip they could accommodate on the old Sandown course before it was redeveloped in 2002 to accommodate the Hillside and Lakeside circuits.
The Lee Freedman-trained Drum won that year’s Oakleigh Plate while the first race to be staged with the new winning post will be the Listed Christmas Stakes on Monday.
MRC chairman Matt Cain said it will be interesting to watch as jockeys push their mounts out for another 80m past the traditional finish.
“It’s innovative that you can extend the winning post from the current one to a further 80 metres down the track and the visibility for most people on course will be exactly the same,” Cain said.
For those television viewers, a platform has been built in the grandstand to have a camera situated on the finishing line.
A field on nine will contest the Christmas Stakes that has the Godolphin galloper Andermatt as the $2.40 favourite in early betting.