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Before we (gleefully) bombard your feed with everything #LRK3DE the rest of this week, let’s take a look at something a little different for this afternoon’s video. Go fetch yourself a napkin, because you’re about to drool over this gallop track.
Nestled in the southeast suburbs of Melbourne, Australia is Cranbourne, home to the Cranbourne Racecourse and Cranbourne Training Complex. The Training Complex is the largest Thoroughbred training facility in the southern hemisphere, boasting numerous courses and tracks, a swimming pool and treadmills, and perhaps the most enviable thing of all: the sand hill gallop track. This gallop track is no ordinary gallop track. It winds through the Australian vegetation, up and down a hill, offering equine athletes (and riders alike, I’m sure) a welcome respite from galloping ’round in circles.
Now if you’re wondering why we don’t have anything like this in America (that this author knows of, at least!), let me explain why by way of a little natural history tangent. The Cranbourne Training Complex has the geology of Melbourne area to thank for this gem. The sand hills that characterize the region are a product of millions-year-old dune fields which existed around the same time as the last great Ice Age. The sand around Cranbourne (aptly named Cranbourne sand) was well sought after in the 1800s and mined for use in urbanizing the Melbourne area as as surface soil for lawns, playing fields, and golf courses. In fact the site of the Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne, which borders the Cranbourne Training Complex directly to the south, was previously a sand mine until 1970. Cranbourne sand and the layers of other sands and soils underneath create a fantastically well-draining footing.
But I digress! Natural history not your thing? Just enjoy ride aboard “Ironpot” along with Max Keenan, exercise ride for Price Kent Racing, in all its scenic glory.
