The land in the middle? Mostly open space with a lake, a BBQ and a carpark. Usually one or two old bongs floating the lake too. Inside the racing track are some training tracks they can get rid of once the stables move out, since they will not be training there anymore. Removal of stables will create the space for the night track, which will be much smaller than the current day track.
I believe the race track and some of the buildings are privately owned by MRC, the rest is crown land. Some of this is leased to the MRC for $1 per year, which they operate as a private car park where they charge people $8 per car a day.
In the olden days the site was used by drovers from Gippsland to rest and fatten up their stock when they brought them in to the Melbourne markets. Dandenong Road was a stock route back then. The drovers would pass the time by racing their horses around the swamp. The wealthy folk from the CBD built holiday mansions around the area (many of which still exist) and started racing their own horses there.
