ABOUT US
ABOUT RICHMOND RACE CLUB
Richmond Race Club was established in 1955 and has since stamped its importance in the New South Wales greyhound racing history books. It is the premier provincial greyhound racing club in NSW conducting Circle and Straight Track racing.
Richmond Circle Track races over distances 320m, 401m, 520m, 622m and 722m.
Richmond Straight Track races are over 324m.
The fully licensed bar and bistro is the perfect way to spend your evenings with Richmond.
Our function room has its own private bar, with beautiful panoramic views of the track.
Richmond Race Club is in the business of providing the best greyhound racing venue and services in New South Wales, with the highest quality facilities for trainers, owners, visitors and greyhounds. Come down to check us out!
BOARD
Melinda Finn
President
DIRECTORS
Lorraine Barrington
Company Secretary
Brian Barrington
Sam Simonetta
Paul Boyd
INDEPENDENT DIRECTORS
Craig Butler
Bernard Bratusa
OUR HISTORY
Richmond Race Club is one of the leading provincial greyhound tracks in New South Wales racing on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday Nights on the Circle Track and Thursday Afternoons on the Straight Track. The Circle Track is a two turn loam circuit racing over 320, 401, 520, 622 and 722 metres, and the Straight Track is NSW’s only current straight track in operation, with racing on a grass surface over the 324m.
The track, based at Londonderry, was first opened as a thoroughbred and harness track and held its first meeting on December 17, 1912. Aside from four years during the depression, the track has continually held race meetings until the present day.
Until the late 1930s, the club usually held between 4-5 race meetings a year.
The gallops ceased racing at Richmond in 1952 and the club then operated solely with its trotting licence until October 1955 when greyhound racing was introduced on the straight track on site on Saturday afternoons.
The 110 acre property that the racetrack was built upon was purchased by the Club in 1958 for £17,500. Shortly after the purchase, the Londonderry Trotting and Race Club limited was established. Nine years later, the club changed its name to the Richmond Race Club Ltd, and continued on with conducting both trotting and greyhound races.
Richmond developed a new grass circle track for greyhound racing in 1968 and started holding non-tab race meetings on it until the March 28, 1969, when the track was granted full TAB coverage.
It was an additional two years until harness racing at Richmond also received TAB coverage.
Thanks to the administration of Elwin Holmes, John Varley and Frank Kennedy during the 1970s, Richmond became the leading provincial track in the state. Kennedy was responsible for Richmond becoming the first greyhound club to have their races shown on television when Channel 7 showed replays of events on a show Kennedy hosted, Punter’s Post Mortem.
In 1987, the Richmond Club Committee met with the NSW Harness Racing Authority to discuss the future of the current grass track and changes they wished to make. Subsequently, the harness track closed for six months in August 1987 before re-opening on March 28, 1988. Ten years later, on December 30, 1997, the last harness meeting was held at Richmond.
The last meeting on the old grass track was held on the June 4, 1999, before the surface was replaced with a new loam track. The first meeting on the loam track was a non-TAB meeting on September 5, 1999, before the first TAB meeting was run on September 10 of that same year.