Cranbourne Greyhound Racing Club
28/08/2026
Nationals 2026 is coming to Victoria - so we thought we'd stop by and check it out.
The Nationals 2026 returns to Sandown Park this Saturday night where the best greyhounds in the country take on one of Victoria's biggest stages to battle it out for National glory.
It’s set to be a huge celebration of greyhound racing, bringing together the best dogs, trainers, owners and fans from across Australia.
Go Team Victoria!
May and June 2026 are the two months when polite small talk about the rebuild turned into genuine excitement, the site finally looking like a racetrack again instead of a very large sandpit.
May brought irrigation and fencing works, completed lighting poles, an installed giant screen (still not over it), and the first work on the starting structures themselves. Stand at the top of the straight now and you can see the screen where results and replays will run on raceday, and the light towers that'll carry Saturday night racing long after the sun's gone down and everyone's had one too many pies.
Then June turned up with the final major pieces of equipment: starting boxes and timing boards delivered, kennel flooring finished, and electrical and AV cabling underway, basically the nervous system for everything that makes raceday actually work. Seeing the real starting boxes turn up on site is one of those moments that makes a rebuild feel genuinely close. These are the exact boxes every dog will load into on opening night, and every race after it.
Two months, and the track was nearly ready to start talking back to us. We've never been so excited about wiring.
25/08/2026
WILDCARD ROUND 2026 has arrived… and we’ve got our own version!
Just like the AFL, it’s all about survival, pressure and earning your spot in the finals.
But at Cranbourne, there’s no footy required… just a greyhound, a card and a whole lot of luck. 👀
Who’s your Wildcard pick? 🏉
25/08/2026
Episode 12: 2014 🐾
By 2014, the three codes at Cranbourne had something important to say about the venue they shared. And they backed it up with $3.2 million.
Thoroughbred, Harness and Greyhound racing jointly invested in a grandstand expansion that transformed Cranbourne Racing Complex into one of the leading racing venues in regional Victoria. Capacity jumped to around 900 people across two floors.
The grandstand standing at Cranbourne today, soon to be filled with a crowd for the reopening, represents the investment and belief in the future of this place.
It was the right call then. And the new track being completed right now is the right call for the next 50 years.
Counting down the days now. 🐾
#2014
24/08/2026
Legends of Cranbourne 🟣
Jason Thompson. The Wizard of Oz. Group 1 wins across Australia, track records at venues the length and breadth of the state. One of the most decorated trainers greyhound racing has ever seen.
And for years, the one thing missing from his mantlepiece? A Cranbourne Cup.
He'd been runner-up with Hotshow Jackson in 2003 and Equalizer in 2021. Third with Awesome Assassin in 1997, Whodat Knockin' in 2015 and Squiggle Keeping in 2021. His wife Seona had trained Poke The Bear to third in 2018 and second in 2019. The hoodoo was real and the Cranbourne racing community gave him plenty about it.
Then came Alpha Zulu in 2023 and the monkey was finally, gloriously off. Even if, due to the track closure, the Cup series was held at Sandown, it still counted. It still mattered.
"The Cranbourne area is where our kids have grown up," Thompson says. "The Cranbourne Cup was the only country cup we hadn't won. It was good to tick that box."
Alpha Zulu's ownership group featured Brisbane Lions great Jonathan Brown and Fox Sports supremo Steve Crawley, high-profile owners for a high-profile result on a stage that deserved it.
Now Jason wants the real thing. The home track. The real Cranbourne crowd. Not long now!
That's a Cranbourne legend. 🐾
March 2026 brought a genuine, certified, no-notes milestone: the kerb, lure rail and start slabs were all completed.
The start slabs are exactly what they sound like, the concrete platforms the starting boxes will eventually sit on, and with the bones of the track finally done, the club could stop worrying about the track and start worrying about literally everything else that goes into raceday.
Cue April, which is when things got genuinely exciting. Light pole reinforcement went in, along with key concrete slabs for the lure motor and the giant screen (yes, an actual big screen, we still can't quite believe it either), and work began refurbishing the kennels.
It's easy to fixate on the track itself when you think about a rebuild like this, but the kennels are where the dogs get settled and prepared before every race, and a happy dog makes for a happy raceday, so this bit matters just as much as anything happening trackside.
Two months, and the rebuild had properly moved beyond the track surface and into everything that makes raceday actually feel like raceday.
19/08/2026
Legends of Cranbourne 🟣
Pearcedale's Kel and Jackie Greenough have been part of Cranbourne Greyhounds for 50 years. Half a century at the same club, racing the same loam, in the same community. 🐾
They've raced champions including Wow She's Fast, a world record holder and dual Phoenix winner, along with High Earner, Cindeen Shelby, Hotline Hero, Paw Licking and plenty more. A roll call any stable in the country would be proud of.
They've also won the Cranbourne Cup twice. Kel with Avondale Porche in 2015 and Jackie with Often Imitated in 2020.
"Because it's your local cup, it's certainly special," Kel says. And when Jackie's Often Imitated won in 2020, daughter Angela was there to share it. Those are the moments that stay with a family.
The Greenoughs received the prestigious Ned Bryant Silver Fox Award in 2023, named in honour of an iconic Cranbourne trainer and canine chiropractor who was also inducted into the GRV Hall of Fame.
Kel doesn't mince words about what the track closure has meant: "It means a lot more travel for Gippsland-based trainers if we lose Cranbourne. Geographically, I think you'll find more trainers closer to Cranbourne than any other area."
Their home track is coming back!
That's a Cranbourne legend. 🐾
18/08/2026
Episode 11: 2005–2006 🐾
Sometimes you have to stop to go faster. In 2005, that's exactly what Cranbourne GRC did.
The club went quiet for five months, a real sacrifice for a racing community, while a brand new kennel and administration building was constructed and completed in September. When racing returned it was Monday nights, a fresh facility and a renewed sense of momentum.
Then in 2006, new working runs were built adjacent to the South Gippsland Highway, improving training conditions for the trainers and dogs who have always been the beating heart of this club.
Every upgrade. Every investment. Every bold call the committee made over 50 years adds up to where we are today.
The new track being built right now is the latest chapter in that story. And if history is any guide, the wait will be worth every day of it.
We'll see you there soon. 🐾
#2005
17/08/2026
DID YOU KNOW?
There’s a lot more to Victorian greyhound racing than what happens on race night.
Thousands of people work across the industry and the businesses, services and professions that support it every day.
Legends of Cranbourne 🟣
2006 Cranbourne Cup. Box 1. $1.60 on the tote. Everything pointing to one result.
And then Pororoca went and delivered something nobody in that grandstand was going to forget.
Trained by the remarkable Andrea Dailly, Pororoca didn't just win the Cranbourne Cup. He won it in 29.68 seconds, smashing the track record in the process and producing what race caller Ron Hawkswell described as "a display of sheer speed."
"He sizzled," was The Hawk's full verdict. Short. Perfect. True.
Pororoca remains the shortest-priced winner in Cranbourne Cup history. Dailly, who trained him, went on to win four Cranbourne Cups in total — a training record that still stands today and may stand for a very long time.
The Cranbourne track doesn't hand records to just anyone. The wind, the uphill home straight, the unique character of the surface — it demands everything from a dog. Pororoca gave everything and then some.
There are nights at the track that just stay with you. The 2006 Cranbourne Cup is one of them.
That's a Cranbourne legend. 🐾