Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in the UK and steeplechasing in the US. Jump racing can be further divided into hurdling and steeplechasing.
Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys over a set distance, for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic premise – to identify which of two or more horses is the fastest over a set course or distance – has been unchanged since at least classical antiquity.
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.
The Spring Racing Carnival is the name of an Australian Thoroughbred horse racing series held annually in Melbourne during October and November.
Pig racing is a sport in which juvenile pigs race around in a small, enclosed area of either dirt, fake grass, gravel track or steel-framed enclosures. This racing is usually purely for entertainment or charity, and betting is rarely part of it, as the races are family-friendly events. It is often an attraction at county fairs but is also practised in many backyard setups. Pig racing can be found in Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Aintree Racecourse is a racecourse in Aintree, Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England, bordering the city of Liverpool. The racecourse is best known for annually holding the world-famous Grand National steeplechase.
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 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.
The Melbourne Racing Club (MRC) is one of three metropolitan horse racing clubs in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It began life as the Victoria Amateur Turf Club, in 1875 with Mr. E.C. Moore as the club's first Secretary. The Dowling Forest Racecourse in Ballarat was the location for the first VATC race meeting on Friday, 24 March 1876. Within six months the VATC were granted use of Crown land at Caulfield as a permanent home in Melbourne.
A steeplechase is a distance horse race in which competitors are required to jump diverse fence and ditch obstacles. Steeplechasing is primarily conducted in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Australia and France. The name is derived from early races in which orientation of the course was by reference to a church steeple, jumping fences and ditches and generally traversing the many intervening obstacles in the countryside.
Victoria Park, also known as Park 16 and Pakapakanthi, is a park located in the Southeastern Park Lands of the South Australian capital of Adelaide. It is bordered by Fullarton Road, Greenhill Road, East Terrace and Wakefield Road. It hosts a variety of major events throughout the year, the most prominent of which have been the Formula 1, from 1985 to 1995, and from 1999 the Adelaide 500/Clipsal 500, cancelled in 2020 for the 2021 season, because of the COVID.
Brooklyn Park is a western suburb of the South Australian capital of Adelaide. It is located on Kaurna land, immediately north-east of Adelaide Airport and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) base on Sir Donald Bradman Drive. It is bound on the north by Henley Beach Road, on the east by Marion Road, and on the west by the Kooyonga Golf Club on May Terrace.
Oakbank is a town in the Adelaide Hills, east of Adelaide in South Australia. It is in the Adelaide Hills Council area. At the 2006 census, Oakbank had a population of 473.
Cartmel Racecourse is a small national hunt racecourse in the village of Cartmel, now in the ceremonial county of Cumbria, historically in Lancashire. Nine racedays are held each year, starting on the Whit Holiday weekend at the end of May and ending on the August Bank Holiday weekend in August Bank Holidays.
Fakenham Racecourse is a thoroughbred horse racing venue located south of Fakenham, Norfolk, England. The Prince of Wales is patron.
The Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival is a horse-racing meeting held over two days by the Oakbank Racing Club at the Oakbank Racecourse located in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. The carnival is a mixture of flat and jumping races with between two and four jumps races on day one and two feature jumping races on day two.
The Great Eastern Steeplechase is an Australian Thoroughbred steeplechase horse race held annually at Oakbank, South Australia on Easter Saturday and Monday at the Oakbank Racecourse as part of the Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival. The first fixture of that name was held in 1877, following a race in 1876 which has been called the "Onkaparinga Handicap Steeplechase"; both just prior to formation of the Onkaparinga Racing Club.
The Grand Annual is an Australian Thoroughbred steeplechase for horses that run at Warrnambool, Victoria during its annual May Racing Carnival. The distance is officially listed as about 5500 metres because many sections of the race are run in open paddocks with little or no fences. The race is the longest horse race run in Australia on a public course. There are 33 obstacles, more than any other steeplechase in the world.
Punchestown Racecourse is located in the parish of Eadestown, between the R410 and R411 regional roads near Naas, County Kildare, in Ireland. It is known as the home of Irish Jumps Racing and plays host to the annual Punchestown Irish National Hunt Festival. The racecourse itself is right-handed with an undulating hurdle and steeplechase track. The hurdle course is one mile six furlongs in distance while the chase course is 2 miles. Punchestown Racecourse also has the only cross country banks course in Ireland.
Woore Racecourse was an English National Hunt horse racing venue, situated in the village of Woore, in the northernmost corner of Shropshire, on the border with Cheshire and Staffordshire.
Oakbank Racing Club, formerly the Onkaparinga Racing Club, is a thoroughbred horse racing organization in South Australia. It is responsible for the Oakbank Racecourse and running the events of the Easter Racing Carnival on that course, culminating in the Great Eastern Steeplechase.
