Devonport Racing Club

Membership privileges

Ladbrokes Devonport Cup

Ladbrokes Devonport Cup time is when most members use their membership. You get

• An invitation to the Pre-Cup cocktail party.
• $50 off any marquee site booked.
• Members parking.
• Regular facebook posts and newsletters.
• Membership for you and one guest.

All this for only $130 per annum for Adults, $100 for pensioners and $90 Young Members (18-35 years). That is great value!

For further information please contact us: 

Phone: 03 6427 2070 or Email: admin@devonportracingclub.net.au

Advertising, signage and race day sponsorship packages are available for business promotion.

For more information contact the club:

Phone: 03 6427 2070 email: admin@devonortracingclub.net.au

Early years

2002 marked the centenary of the Devonport Racing Club, The oldest sporting body in the city of Devonport. In the early years, the club was only granted two racing dates per season - usually one late in December and the second on Easter Saturday. Early programs conducted by the club contained both galloping (including jumps races) and trotting events.

Prize money for events listed on the early programs varied between 15 and 35 sovereigns. The club has always raced at Spreyton, with the land originally owned by Mrs S. Kelcey, wife of one of the pioneers of the Spreyton area and former member of the clubs committee.

The club’s committee decided in December 1903 to purchase the land from Mrs Kelcey. The wooded backdrop to Spreyton Park is called Kelcey Tiers after the pioneer family, who among other pursuits grew hops on the slopes of the tiers.

A recreation complex developed by the Devonport City Council opposite Spreyton Park is named Maidstone Park after Steven Kelsey’s property of about 2000 acres, which extended from the Mersey Estuary to the top of Kelcey Tiers and bounded by the road known as Durkins Road, which today provides access to the racecourse. In early years many of the horses, as well as race patrons, travelled to Spreyton from throughout northern Tasmania by train, as the course is located alongside the main north-west line.

The club has continued to race each year since its inception with the exception of the war years, increasing the number of meetings each season to at one stage 18.

The club also has strong links with many champion gallopers with former committee members Ray Trinder’s win with Piping Lane in the 1972 Melbourne Cup, the late Dr Michael Wilsons victory with Beer Street in the 1970 Caulfield Cup, Lloyd Bonney’s win with Lloyds Gold in the 1979 Australian Derby, and former chairman David Yaxley’s victory with Sydeston in the 1990 Caulfield Cup.

Club records

Club records for the Devonport Cup extend back to 1919 when it was won by Enigmatical and continued through with winners recorded for each year except 1943 when World War 2 interrupted racing.

During the war effort, the racecourse was used for spreading and drying flax by the Flax Board.

The race course

The Devonport Racing Club has enjoyed rapid growth in recent years and now boasts racing, viewing and training facilities on par with comparable mainland courses.

The first major improvement was drainage work carried out in the 1979s but the most important changes have been carried out in the last 10 – 12 years.

In 1988-89, the club set the ball rolling by spending $38,000 on a new sand track and safety rail to accommodate the large number of horses being trained at Spreyton.

The following year the club’s improvements were recognised when it was granted a heat of the world jumping jockeys championship. Then following the 1991 Cup carnival, the club closed its course proper and B grass to allow major reconstruction to take place. This included widening and adjusting the camber of several turns and re-sowing the course.

Modern era

It has only been in the last 15 years that the Devonport Racing Club has come of age. The club’s turning point came in 2006 when the DRC committee began to rally for an upgrade to their turf track. In June 2009 after an exhaustive study that took in excess of 12 months, the committee was ecstatic to announce an $11 million upgrade by Tasracing from a turf track to an all-weather synthetic surface. And so in March 2011, a new era of racing began in Tasmania with a synthetic track that now allows training and racing at Devonport seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Stage one of the track reconstruction commenced on Friday 4th March 2011 when the track was handed over to Tasmanian company Shaw’s Contracting. Shaw’s dug up the previous turf track, laid pipes and drainage rock and added a cement curb inside and out the whole way around the track. Stage two commenced on the 9th June 2011 when Roadways company from Burnie laid a porous asphalt base over the pipes and layer of drainage rock thus ensuring the integrity of the entire project by protecting the drainage profile and providing a stable base for the world-class synthetic surface.

In July of 2011 stage three was put in place when the new Tapeta surface, designed by trainer Michael Dickenson of Tapeta Footings, began to be mixed and laid.

Tapeta is specially designed first and foremost to protect the horse's wellbeing. The patented wax-coated mixture of sand, rubber and fibre is impervious to weather and never turns to mud, and is the only system on the market today that has been tested over time and holds up under varied and severe weather conditions.

In August of 2011, the first horses crossed onto our new state of the art track for training, marking a new beginning to racing at Devonport and Tasmania.

The club also has strong links with many champion gallopers with former committee members Ray Trinder’s win with Piping Lane in the 1972 Melbourne Cup, the late Dr Michael Wilsons victory with Beer Street in the 1970 Caulfield Cup, Lloyd Bonney’s win with Lloyds Gold in the 1979 Australian Derby, former chairman’s David Yaxley’s victory with Sydeston in the 1990 Caulfield Cup.

Committee

• Mr Barry Milton - Chairman
• Mr Peter George - Deputy Chairman
• Mr John Collis - Treasurer
• Mr Barry Diprose
• Mr Keith Cock
• Mr Ross Jones
• Mr John Deacon
• Mr Phillip Turner
• Mr Rowan Hamer

Patron

• Mr Jeremy Rockliff