Founded in 1974, the Cranbourne Greyhound Racing Club is based at the Cranbourne Racing Centre, the only venue in Victoria that conducts all three codes of racing – thoroughbred, harness and greyhound.
1972
It was announced in 1972 by the Undersecretary John V. Dillon (there was no Minister for Sport at this time) that two new licences to conduct Greyhound Racing would be issued.
1973 – 74
Two sites were considered for the new licence, Cranbourne and Baxter. Following a robust debate, Sir John Dillon, was approached and decided a licence would be granted to conduct greyhound racing in Cranbourne.
Shortly after, a public meeting (approximately 400 people attended) was held in the Cranbourne Hall to form the Cranbourne Greyhound Racing Club and elect its first committee.
The kennels and track were completed in July 1974 and the Cranbourne Greyhound Racing Club ran its first race meeting on the 31st of August 1974.
Opening night was such a success that the gates had to be thrown open to ease the traffic congestion building up 12km back along South Gippsland Highway.
The club attracted a crowd of over 8,000 patrons.
1975
The first Cup was held in January over 510m before it was changed to the longer 520 metres in 1977
1976
In 1976, the club began operating its own tote The track distance was changed from 510m to 520m
allowing for the starting boxes to be correctly aligned with the first turn, thus reducing interference.
Late 70s and early 80s
In these years, Cranbourne was a member of the Gippsland Greyhound Racing Association (GGRA) a group that also included the Sale, Traralgon and Warragul Clubs.
During these years, the Cranbourne Club was highly innovative in its approach to promotion.
Often giving away cars to Cup winners they also had celebrity appearances including Champion
cricketers Doug Walters, Tony Greig, Bill Lawry and Keith Stackpole.
Channel 7 games show host Tony Barber had a greyhound named Sale of the Century which, generated a lot of media coverage for the club.
A 420m start first positioned at the first turn operated from the mid-80s until 1992 but was abandoned after racing resulted in excessive interference.
1994
Club stalwart Ross Mitchell arranged for the Melbourne Tigers basketball team to attend Cup night. Melbourne’s very own superstar, Andrew Gaze presented the $20,000 winners cheque in front of a huge crowd.
1996
On 1st August 1996, the club moved from our regular Saturday night time slot of the past 21 years, to Friday afternoons, and were the first club to race with TAB & Sky Channel coverage during a week day.
1998
In 1998, the face of greyhound racing in Australia changed forever with SKY Channel requesting racing in the twilight time slot. Victorian greyhound racing was overhauled with four clubs, including Cranbourne, which took the Friday twilight time slot, racing between 4pm and 7pm.
With full SKY Channel coverage, the exposure of the club throughout Australia has never been better.
2000s
Trios Tabaret, a cornerstone of the Cranbourne community, opened its doors in April 2000. It was established through a unique partnership between the three local racing codes — Thoroughbred Racing, Harness Racing, and Greyhound Racing —each holding an equal one-third stake.
The close working relationship with the Turf and Harness Club led to the inaugural Tri-Code race day
first held in June 2002 with 27 races conducted over 6 hours. This would become a major annual event for the three codes.
The club went into recession for five months while the new kennel and administration building was
completed in September 2005. We returned to racing on Monday Nights.
The clubs constructed new training facilities in the way of the working runs in 2006.
2010s
The three codes completed a $3.2 million upgrade on the Grandstand in 2014, increasing capacity to approx. 900 people over two floors and making it one of the leading racing venues in Victoria.
The club started racing on Wednesday nights while also racing a second day meeting during the rebuild of Traralgon.
2020s
A big change to the Cup saw it run in October 2021 for the first time. It saw some of the strongest fields in Cup history and continued in the following years.
The club’s feature event, the Cranbourne Cup, has long been regarded as one of Victoria’s prized trophies.
