It is situated 25 kilometres south-east of the Melbourne CBD on the Princes Highway in the suburb of Springvale in the City of Greater Dandenong.

With the increase in the number of overseas horses being attracted to the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival a Quarantine Centre was established at Sandown Racecourse and used for the first time in 1997.

A Greyhound racing facility also called Sandown Park is just to the south-west on the opposite side of Lightwood Road.

The course using the outer home turn and outside 30 metres in the main straight was named Sandown Hillside, and the course comprising the reconfigured inner home turn and full 45 metres wide straight was named Sandown Lakeside.

Racing on the reconfigured tracks commenced on 25 January 2003 with the number of meetings hosted at Sandown being increased from 32 to 41 per season.