Canterbury Park is situated in the Sydney region of New South Wales and is about 8 miles south west of the city centre. It can be described as a 'user-friendly course offering racegoers their closest view of explosive thoroughbred action.' It was the first proprietary racecourse in New South Wales and opened on 19th January 1884, although racing had been taking place in the vicinity of the current track as early as 1871. The present day right handed turf track is pear shaped with a circumference of 8 furlongs and a straight of just less than 2 furlongs.
The medal/key ring shown above was issued in 1985 to celebrate the successes of Kingston Town in winning 11 Group 1 races as well as 3 consecutive Cox Plates from 1980 until 1982.
The track hosted two Group One races in 2008 which were the Ranvet Stakes over 1900 metres in March, and the Queen of the Turf Sakes run over 1550 metres also in March. The racecourse is the major mid-week racing venue and the home of Sydney night racing. The Ranvet is usually run at Rosehill Gardens but in 2008 was won by Tuesday Joy at Canterbury Park. The Queen of the Turf Stakes is also traditionally run at Rosehill Gardens, but in 2008 was won at this track by Forensics. Currently the Canterbury Classic in January is the principal race at the track.
With grateful thanks to Sue Hutchison (AJC) for providing information and scans
