South American plant close to spectacular horse racing venue (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
rain tree
'close to spectacular horse racing venue' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.
'south american plant' is the wordplay.
'south american' becomes 'rain' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'plant' becomes 'tree'.
'rain'+'tree'='RAIN-TREE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rain tree that I've seen before include "Large tropical growth" , "Tropical plant" , "American native" .)