Thoroughbred horse racing is an important spectator sport in Australia, and gambling on horse races is a very popular pastime with A$14.3 billion wagered in 2009/10 with bookmakers and the Totalisator Agency Board (TAB). The two forms of Thoroughbred horseracing in Australia are flat racing, and races over fences or hurdles in Victoria and South Australia. Thoroughbred racing is the third most attended spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian rules football and rugby league, with almost two million admissions to 360 registered racecourses throughout Australia in 2009/10. Horseracing commenced soon after European settlement, and is now well-appointed with automatic totalizators, starting gates and photo finish cameras on nearly all Australian racecourses.
Damien Oliver is an Australian thoroughbred racing jockey. Oliver comes from a racing family; his father Ray Oliver had a successful career until his death in a race fall during the 1975 Kalgoorlie cup in Western Australia. In 2008 Oliver was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
Might and Power was a New Zealand bred, Australian owned and trained Thoroughbred racehorse who was named Australian Horse of the Year in 1998 and 1999. As a four-year-old, Might And Power won the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, and returned at five to become only the second horse in the history of Australian racing to win both Cups and the Cox Plate. He also won a number of other weight-for-age races in this period, including the Mercedes Classic, the AJC Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the Doomben Cup. A strong, free-striding front-runner, he broke course records in winning the Caulfield Cup, the Doomben Cup, and the Cox Plate, and won a number of races by big margins.
Elvstroem was a bay Thoroughbred racehorse, by world champion sire Danehill from the former champion three-year-old filly, Circles of Gold.
Ajax was a champion Australian bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire, who won 18 consecutive races before he was defeated at the odds of 40/1 on, causing a huge racing sensation. He had wins from 5 furlongs (1,000 metres) to 1½ miles (2,400 metres), equalled the Australasian record for a mile (1,600 metres), and created three new race records. At stud in Australia, Ajax proved to be a good sire. He was then sold as a 14-year-old horse and exported to the United States before he was later sold to Bing Crosby and Lin Howard. Ajax was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2004.
Gabriel Marie "Gai" Waterhouse is an Australian horse trainer and businesswoman. The daughter of Tommy J. Smith, a leading trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses, Waterhouse was born and raised in Sydney. After graduating from the University of New South Wales, she worked as an actor for a time, appearing in both Australian and English television series. Having worked under her father for a period of 15 years, Waterhouse was granted an Australian Jockey Club (AJC) licence in 1992, and trained her first Group One (G1) winner later that year.
Takeover Target was a much-travelled Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who won top sprinting races in each of the five major cities in Australia as well as in the United Kingdom, Japan, and Singapore.
Weekend Hussler is a retired Australian Thoroughbred racehorse. He is a bay gelding by Hussonet out of Weekend Beauty. He was foaled in 2004. Hussonet had been a very successful sire in Chile for Haras de Pirque where he stood for the largest fee of any stallion in the history of Chilean Thoroughbred breeding.
Veandercross was a New Zealand-bred Thoroughbred gelding who won 14 stakes races,, and was chosen Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year for the 1992–93 season.
Dundeel, or It’s a Dundeel as he is known in Australia, is a champion New Zealand Thoroughbred racehorse. He is the fifth and most recent winner of the Australian Triple Crown.
Deep Diver was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. As a two-year-old in 1971 he won seven of his eleven races including the Brocklesby Stakes, July Stakes, Prix d'Arenberg, Cornwallis Stakes and Prix du Petit Couvert. In the following year he took time to reproduce his best form but emerged as the best sprinter in Europe with decisive wins in the Nunthorpe Stakes, Prix de l'Abbaye. Timeform rated Deep Diver the best racehorse of his generation in Europe at both two and three years of age. He has been retrospectively rated as one of the best British-trained sprinters of the 20th century. Deep Diver stood as a breeding stallion in Ireland, Australia and Japan but had little success as a sire of winners.
Buffering is a retired Australian Thoroughbred racehorse. A gelding, Buffering is one of the highest-money-earning horses in Australian racing history, having surpassed $7,000,000 in earnings on March 26, 2016, by winning the 2016 Al Quoz Sprint at the Meydan Racecourse during the 2016 Dubai World Cup race meeting. Buffering is the 7th horse in Australian history to surpass $7,000,000 in prizemoney and the first Queensland bred horse to do so.
Bluebird was an American-bred, Irish-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He fetched $1.1 million as a yearling and spent his racing career in Europe. He showed promise as a juvenile in Ireland in 1986 when he won on his debut and finished third in his only other race that year. In the following spring, he finished second in the Leopardstown 2,000 Guineas Trial Stakes before being dropped to sprint distances to win the Ballyogan Stakes and subsequently recording an emphatic victory in the Group One King's Stand Stakes. He failed to win in three subsequent starts and was retired at the end of the season. He later stood as a breeding stallion in Ireland and Australia and had considerable success as a sire of winners.
Ultra Thoroughbred Racing Pty Ltd is a racing syndicate and breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses based in Melbourne, Victoria and owned by Sean Buckley. Although based in Melbourne, the company has significant interests throughout Australia, with land holdings in Victoria and the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. The business primarily bases its racing interests in Australia, however, races internationally with a particular focus on the New Zealand market in recent times.
Authaal was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was probably the best horse sired by the ill-fated Shergar, winning at the highest level in both Ireland and Australia. He was unraced as a two-year-old but won four of his five races as a three-year-old in 1986, culminating in an emphatic victory in the Irish St. Leger. After failing to reproduce his best form in 1987, he was set to race in Australia where he recorded major wins in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Underwood Stakes. After his retirement from racing he stood as a breeding stallion in Japan but had little success as a sire of winners.
Chautauqua is a former and now retired champion Australian racehorse. He was bred as a thoroughbred, which is the superior breed for a racehorse. Chautauqua's grey colouring saw him receive the nickname “The Grey Flash”. Chautauqua raced 32 times, winning 6 group one races and earning AU$8,821,935 in prize money. This includes three successive Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes wins and a Group 1 Chairman's Sprint Prize win.
Melody Belle is a champion New Zealand Thoroughbred racehorse who is the only horse to win the New Zealand Triple Crown. She is also a two-time New Zealand Horse of the Year and holds the New Zealand record for the most Group 1 races won with 14, surpassing the previous New Zealand record of 13 set by the great mare Sunline and only one off the Australian record of 15 set by Black Caviar.
Warning is a Group 1 winning Australian bred thoroughbred racehorse who is most notable for winning the 2019 Victoria Derby.
Probabeel is a multiple Group 1 winning New Zealand bred thoroughbred racehorse.
Poetic Prince, known in Australia as Our Poetic Prince, was an Australian bred and New Zealand trained race-horse that was a top performer at Group 1 level.
