The Sydney Carnival, a.k.a. Sydney Autumn Carnival, is a major Australian Thoroughbred racing series held in Sydney in March and April each year. It consists of six weeks of racing conducted by Australian Turf Club across the city's two primary racecourses: Royal Randwick and Rosehill Gardens. The most important races include the AAMI Golden Slipper Stakes, the world's richest race for two-year-old horses, [1] the BMW Stakes, the Rosehill Guineas, the Australian Derby, the Doncaster Handicap and the Sydney Cup. The 2015 Sydney Autumn Carnival consists of 20 Group 1 races, and offers $26.5 million in prize money. [2]
Inaugurated in 2014 and dubbed "The Grand Finals of Australian Racing", The Championships is held on two days over the Easter Holiday period. The Championships have combined previous stand alone races such as the Doncaster Mile, The Australian Derby, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and The Sydney Cup into two weekends of racing with nearly $10 million prize money on offer each Saturday. The 2015 Championships will be hosted at Royal Randwick, known as the home of Thoroughbred racing in Sydney. Racing days are 4 and 11 April 2015.
The Championships is attempting to attract global interest in Sydney Racing, and in 2015 six international horses will be participating. [3] The Canterbury racetrack, after being granted federal government approval, is to be used as a quarantine training and stabling area for overseas horses.
In 2014, The Queen Elizabeth Stakes prize money was raised to $4 million, becoming the richest race of the Sydney Autumn Carnival. [4] Another iconic race is the Doncaster Mile, which offers $3 million in prize money.
Thoroughbred horse racing is a 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.
Royal Randwick Racecourse is a racecourse for horse racing located in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Randwick Racecourse is Crown Land leased to the Australian Turf Club and known to many Sydney racegoers as headquarters. The racecourse is located about six kilometres south-east from the Sydney Central Business District in the suburb of Randwick. The course proper has a circumference of 2224m with a home straight of 410m.
Kingston Town was a champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse who won three Cox Plates and 11 other Group One races and was the 1980 Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year.
The Randwick Guineas is an Australian Turf Club Group One Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds, run at set weights over a distance of 1600 metres at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, Australia in March as a part of the Sydney Autumn Carnival. Total prize money for the race is A$1 million.
Super Impose was a New Zealand-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. In a career spanning 74 starts, he won eight Group One races and a then Australasian record $5.6 million in prize money. Trained throughout his career by Lee Freedman and ridden in his Group One wins by Bruce Compton (once), Darren Gauci (once), Darren Beadman, and Greg Hall (once), Super Impose won the AJC Epsom and Doncaster Handicaps two years in a row, in 1990 and 1991, and won the Cox Plate at his penultimate start as an eight-year-old in 1992.
Flight (1940–1953) was an Australian Thoroughbred racemare that was the highest stakes winning mare in Australasia. Her courageous efforts made her a crowd favourite during the post World War II era and she had victories over some of the great horses of the time including Shannon, Bernborough, Royal Gem and Russia.
The 2002 Epsom Derby was a horse race which took place at Epsom Downs on Saturday 8 June 2002. It was the 223rd running of the Derby, and it was won by High Chaparral. The winner was ridden by Johnny Murtagh and trained by Aidan O'Brien. The pre-race favourite Hawk Wing finished second.
Nash Rawiller is a prominent Australian jockey, based in Sydney. He has ridden races in many other parts of the world, including France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, Singapore and United Arab Emirates. He began his career in Victoria but moved to Sydney in 2007 to link up with prominent trainer Gai Waterhouse. Waterhouse has described Rawiller as "a brilliant rider".
Briseis foaled in 1873, was a brown Australian Thoroughbred filly that is regarded as one of the greatest mares ever foaled in Australia. As a two-year-old she won the AJC Doncaster Handicap and the weight for age (w.f.a.) AJC All Aged Stakes. Then as a three-year-old she won the VRC Victoria Derby, the 1876 Melbourne Cup and the VRC Oaks, all within six days.
The Breeders Classic, raced as the Hot Danish Stakes is an Australian Turf Club Group 2 Thoroughbred horse race, for mares three-years old and upwards, at set weights with penalties, over a distance of 1400 metres run at Rosehill Racecourse in Sydney, Australia every November. Total prize money for the race is A$500,000.
Australian Turf Club (ATC) owns and operates thoroughbred racing, events and hospitality venues across Sydney, Australia. The ATC came into being on 7 February 2011 when the Australian Jockey Club (AJC) and the Sydney Turf Club (STC) merged. The ATC primarily operates out of their offices at Randwick Racecourse and employs approximately 270 full-time staff and over 1,000 casual staff across the five venues. The venues include Randwick, Rosehill Gardens, Canterbury Park, Warwick Farm and the Rosehill Bowling Club.
Dundeel, or It’s A Dundeel as he was registered for racing in Australia, is a champion New Zealand Thoroughbred racehorse. He is the fifth and most recent winner of the Australian Triple Crown.
The Doncaster Prelude, registered as Royal Parma Stakes, is an Australian Turf Club Group 3 Thoroughbred quality handicap horse race, for horses aged three years old and older, over a distance of 1500 metres, held at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse in Sydney. Total prize money for the race is A$160,000.
The Australian Triple Crown is a three-race competition for thoroughbred racehorses.
Winx is a retired champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse. She won 37 of 43 career starts, including, between May 2015 and her retirement in April 2019, her last 33 races in succession, including 25 Group 1s, at distances ranging from 1300 metres to 2200 metres. In the World's Best Racehorse Rankings, she was the second-ranked filly or mare in 2015, improving in 2016 to become both the world's top-ranked filly or mare and the world's top-ranked turf horse. She retained this ranking in 2017 and in 2018 was co-ranked as the best horse in the world. In 2017 she was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, only the third horse to earn this honour while still in training. Over her career, she earned more than 26 million Australian dollars.
The Everest is an Australian Turf Club Group 1 Weight for Age Thoroughbred horse race run over 1,200 metres on turf at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, Australia. Between 2017 and 2023 the race was classified as Special Conditions class. In 2024 the race was elevated to Group 1 status.
James Hugh Bowman is an Australian thoroughbred racing jockey. Based in Sydney, Bowman has won the New South Wales Metropolitan Jockey Premiership four times and has ridden 100 Group 1 winners. He was the jockey for Australian champion mare Winx from 2014 through to her retirement in 2019. In 2017, Bowman won the Longines World’s Best Jockey award presented by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities. The award capped off a year in which he added to his domestic success with international Group 1 wins in Hong Kong and Japan. In 2019, he was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, the industry’s highest accolade. Bowman is also renowned for his “She’s Apples” winning salute and his nickname of “the Undisputed Group 1 King”.
Chris Waller, is a Hall of Fame trainer in Australian Thoroughbred racing best known for training the racemare Winx, a four-time winner of Australian Horse of the Year honours.
Pierro is a retired Australian racehorse who is now standing at stud. A bay horse, he stands at 16.1hh. He was from the fifth crop of the champion racehorse and stallion Lonhro out of the dam Miss Rite Note (IRE)(by Daylami). Pierro had a short racing career, racing in just two seasons and retiring to stud as a three-year-old. He ran in a total of 14 races, with 11 wins and 3 placings, including 5 Group 1 wins. His distances ranged from 1200m to 2040m. He was bred at Musk Creek Farm and sold for $230,000 in the Magic Millions sale. He was an unbeaten Triple Crown winner at 2 years, and a dual Group 1 winner at 3 years, earning him the title of both the highest rated Australian juvenile since 1977, and the highest rated 3yo sprinter in the world in 2013. He is now retired to stud at Coolmore, in Jerrys Plains of NSW, where he was purchased for $40 million. This has proved to be a very worthwhile investment for Coolmore thus far, as has had an illustrious career as a stallion to date, including four Group 1 winning progeny. He has had progeny sell for up to $1.1 million, highlighting the promising nature of his progeny for the years to come. His stud fee of $88,000 reflects his high quality characteristics on sale to any buyer who has a worthwhile mare and can afford the fee.