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.
A Day at the Races is a 1937 American comedy film, and the seventh film starring the Marx Brothers, with Allan Jones, Maureen O'Sullivan and Margaret Dumont. Like their previous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature A Night at the Opera, this film was a major hit.
Racing Stripes is a 2005 American sports comedy family film directed by Frederik Du Chau. The film was produced by Andrew A. Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Lloyd Phillips and Edward L. McDonnell, based on a script written by David Schmidt, Steven P. Wegner, Kirk DeMicco, and Du Chau. It was released theatrically on January 14, 2005, by Warner Bros.
"The Rocking-Horse Winner" is a short story by D. H. Lawrence. It was first published in July 1926, in Harper's Bazaar and subsequently appeared in the first volume of Lawrence's collected short stories. It was made into a full-length film directed by Anthony Pelissier and starring John Howard Davies, Valerie Hobson and John Mills; the film was released in the United Kingdom in 1949 and in 1950 in the United States. It was also made into a TV film in 1977 and a 1997 film directed by Michael Almereyda.
Let It Ride is a 1989 American comedy film. It was directed by Joe Pytka from a screenplay by Nancy Dowd based on the 1979 novel Good Vibes by Jay Cronley. It stars Richard Dreyfuss, David Johansen, Teri Garr, and Allen Garfield. The story is centered on a normally unsuccessful habitual gambler who experiences a day in which he wins every bet he places, and focuses on the personality contrasts and the perpetually upbeat, hopeful attitudes of losers.
Miesque was a champion Thoroughbred racemare. At age three, she was a dual Classic winner in France and Britain, then went on to win the Breeders' Cup Mile in America. Her four-year-old campaign was highlighted by another win in the Mile, making her the first horse to win two consecutive Breeders' Cup races. She was a Group One/Grade I (G1) winner at two, three and four-years-old, for a total of 10 G1 wins. She was inducted into the American Racing Hall of Fame in 1999.
Barbara L (1947–1977) was an American Quarter Horse that raced during the early 1950s and often defeated some of the best racehorses of the time. She earned $32,836 on the race track in 81 starts and 21 wins, including six wins in stakes races. She set two track records during her racing career. After retiring from racing in 1955, she went on to become a broodmare and had 14 foals, including 11 who earned their Race Register of Merit with the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA). Her offspring earned more than $200,000 in race money. She died in 1977 and was inducted into the AQHA's American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2007.
Oh Doctor! is a 1917 American two-reel silent comedy film directed by and starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and featuring Buster Keaton.
The Ex-Mrs. Bradford is a 1936 American comedy-mystery film. William Powell and Jean Arthur star as a divorced couple who investigate a murder at a racetrack. This was the last film directed by Stephen Roberts before his untimely death from a heart attack.
Three Men on a Horse is a 1936 comedy film directed and produced by Mervyn LeRoy, adapted from the Broadway play of the same name written by George Abbott and John Cecil Holm. A mild-mannered greeting card poet has the uncanny ability to pick winners in horse races.
Febbre da cavallo is a 1976 Italian comedy film directed by Steno and starring Gigi Proietti. It was shown as part of a retrospective on Italian comedy at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.
Miss Meyers was an American Quarter Horse racehorse and broodmare, the 1953 World Champion Quarter Running Horse. She won $28,725 as well as 17 races. As a broodmare, she produced, or was the mother of, the first American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Supreme Champion, Kid Meyers. She was the mother of three other foals, and was inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in 2009.
The Great Mike is a 1944 American film directed by Wallace Fox.
Glossary of North American horse racing:
Horse racing in the United States dates back to 1665, which saw the establishment of the Newmarket course in Salisbury, New York, a section of what is now known as the Hempstead Plains of Long Island, New York. This first racing meet in North America was supervised by New York's colonial governor, Richard Nicolls. The area is now occupied by the present Nassau County, New York, region of Greater Westbury and East Garden City.
Condessa was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse. In two seasons of racing she was highly tried, racing twenty-one times, winning five times and finishing second twice. As a two-year-old she won two minor races from eight attempts, but appeared to be well behind the best of her generation. In the following year she developed to become one of the best staying fillies of her generation in Europe, beating an exceptionally strong field in the Musidora Stakes at York Racecourse, finishing second in the Irish Oaks, and recording her biggest win at the same track when she won the Yorkshire Oaks. Her victories in 1981 were the first major successes for her trainer Jim Bolger. She was later transferred to the United States where she made no impact and was retired from racing at the end of the year. She has had some influence as a broodmare.
Off to the Races is a 1937 American comedy film directed by Frank R. Strayer and written by Robert Ellis and Helen Logan. The film stars Slim Summerville, Jed Prouty, Shirley Deane, Spring Byington, Russell Gleason and Kenneth Howell. The film was released on February 5, 1937, by 20th Century Fox.
Betting on horse racing or horse betting commonly occurs at many horse races. Modern horse betting started in Great Britain in the early 1600s during the reign of King James I. Gamblers can stake money on the final placement of the horses taking part in a race. Gambling on horses is, however, prohibited at some racetracks. For example, because of a law passed in 1951, betting is illegal in Springdale Race Course, home of the nationally renowned Toronto-Dominion Bank Carolina Cup and Colonial Cup Steeplechase in Camden, South Carolina.
The Huron Handicap was an American Thoroughbred horse race run between 1901 and 1940 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. Raced on dirt, it was run at a distance of 1 3/16 miles with the exception of 1914 when the distance was set at 1 1/4 miles.
The 2021 Breeders' Cup World Championships is the 38th edition of the premier event of the North American thoroughbred horse racing year. The 14 races, all but one of which are Grade I, took place on November 5 and 6 at Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California and were telecast by NBC and NBC Sports. The Breeders' Cup is generally regarded as the end of the North America racing season, although a few Grade I events take place in later November and December. The event typically determines champions in many of the Eclipse Award divisions.
