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 2009/10Australian Racing Fact Book 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.

On an international scale Australia has more racecourses than any other nation. It is second to the United States in the number of horses starting in races each year. Australia is third, after the U.S. and Japan for the amount of prize money that is distributed annually.

Racing industry

Racing in Australia is administered by the Australian Racing Board, with each state's Principal Racing Authority agreeing to abide by, and to enforce, the Australian Rules of Racing.

Besides being a spectator sport, horseracing is also an industry, which provides full- or part-time employment for almost 250,000 people, the equivalent of 77,000 jobs. About 300,000 people have a direct interest as individual owners of, or members of syndicates which own, the 30,000 horses in training in Australia. There are bookmakers, over 3,600 registered trainers and more than 1,000 jockeys, plus farriers and veterinarians involved at race meetings alone. Race meetings are organised by approximately 374 race clubs that conduct about 2,694 meetings on 360 racecourses around Australia for over $427,245,000 in prize money.

Important races Public interest in Thoroughbred racing, especially during the main spring and autumn racing carnivals, has been growing in recent years with over 100,000 attracted to the running of the Melbourne Cup, the Victoria Derby, the VRC Oaks and the Champions Stakes race meets. The Golden Slipper Stakes, Caulfield Cup and W. S. Cox Plate are also major attractions.

History

Horses

The first horses that came to Australia arrived on the Lady Penrhyn with the First Fleet on 26 January 1788. It is thought that they consisted of one stallion, one colt, three mares, and two fillies from Cape Town, South Africa.Bain Ike, (chief exec.) "The Australian Encyclopaedia", Vol. 4, p. 538, "Horses", Australian Geographic Pty. Ltd., 1996 (Young) Rockingham was one of the first bloodhorses to be imported into Australia, .Binney, Keith R., Horsemen of the First Frontier (1788–1900) and the Serpents Legacy, Volcanic Productions, Sydney, 2005, In 1802, the stallion Northumberland and an English mare were imported, followed shortly thereafter by Washington, a stallion from America. (Old) Hector, was an important Arabian horse that was imported to Australia and whose bloodlines have survived in Australian Thoroughbred pedigrees. Northumberland and Hector were the two leading sires in Australia until 1820.Barrie, Douglas M., The Australian Bloodhorse, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1956 These sires and a number of other Arabian stallions contributed to the breeding up of the bloodhorse population prior to 1825.Montgomery, E.S, "The Thoroughbred", Arco, New York, 1973 Manto, imported in 1825, was the first General Stud Book recorded Thoroughbred mare known by name to arrive in Australia. Her family is still producing winners. In 1826 the Thoroughbred stallion Peter Fin, and mares Cutty Sark and Spaewife, were imported.Barrie, Douglas M., Turf Cavalcade, Halstead Press, Sydney, 1960

The first recorded public auction of bloodstock took place in 1805. After the 1830s more English bred horses were imported for racing, as more racing clubs were formed in the country areas of New South Wales.Chisholm, Alec H. (ed.), The Australian Encyclopaedia, Vol. 4, p. 538, "Horse Racing", Halstead Press, Sydney, 1963 The politician and race-horse owner William Long claimed that the breeding of thoroughbreds had improved the quality of hackney, carriage, saddle and buggy horses in Australia.

Malua, foaled in 1879, was the most versatile Australian Thoroughbred racehorse, winning classic races on the flat and the VRC Grand National Hurdle before becoming a good sire. The New Zealand bred Carbine was one of the early champions of the Australian turf,Shaw, John H., "Collins Australian Encyclopedia", William Collins Pty Ltd., Sydney, 1984, and was later inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame and the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame. His descendants, the New Zealand-bred horses Phar Lap and Tulloch (the first horse to win more than £100,000 in Australia) also became champions of the Australian turf. Bernborough, Kingston Town, Heroic, Makybe Diva (bred in England) and Winx were other champions that have been inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. On 31 March 2011 Black Caviar was rated the best Thoroughbred racehorse in the world by Timeform (with a 135 rating) for the period of 1 October 2010 to 27 March 2011.

Australian Thoroughbred breeding has long been involved in the importation of horses, especially from Europe and later the US. Initially the British importations were identified on records with (imp) or an asterisk (*) added as a suffix to indicate that they were not locally bred. With the advent of importations from other countries and the use of shuttle stallions that stand at stud in Australia during the Northern Hemisphere's winter, these suffixes were replaced by an abbreviated country suffix. These took the format of, e.g., (USA), (GB), (IRE) and (FR) etc.Wicks, B.M., "The Australian Racehorse", Libra Books, Canberra, 1973

Australian-bred stallions exported to America have proved very successful at stud there. Some of these exported horses include, Bernborough, Shannon, Sailor's Guide, Noholme, Tobin Bronze and Royal Gem.du Bourg, Ross, The Australian and New Zealand Thoroughbred, Thomas Nelson, Melbourne, 1980,

Annually, about 8,500 horses are retired from racing, many of which are slaughtered for an export market in human consumption.

Throughout its history, horseracing has become part of the Australian culture and has developed a rich and colourful language.

Early race meetings and clubs

Horseracing had become well established in and around Sydney by 1810. The first official race meeting was organised by officers of Governor Macquarie's visiting 73rd Regiment and held at Hyde Park, Sydney in October 1810, starting on Monday 15th and continuing on the Wednesday and the Friday. The Australian Jockey Club (AJC) held its meetings at Homebush from 1842 to 1859, before moving to Randwick in 1860. The AJC has its headquarters at Randwick where it plays a major role in the regulation of the sport. The Sydney Turf Club (STC) was formed in 1943 and held races on the Rosehill Gardens track and at Canterbury. This club was the initiator of the world's richest race for two-year-olds, the Golden Slipper Stakes. The Australian Jockey and Sydney Turf Clubs Merger Act 2010 merged the two clubs under the name of the Australian Turf Club.

In Victoria the first official races were held in March 1838 on a specially marked out course at Batman's Hill in Melbourne. The Victorian Racing Club (VRC) was formed from the amalgamation in 1864 of the Victoria Jockey Club and Victoria Turf Club.

Queensland's first recorded race meeting was held at Cooper's Plains in 1843. The major race club, the Queensland Turf Club (QTC), was formed in 1863, followed by the Brisbane Amateur Turf Club (BATC) in 1923.

South Australia's first meeting was held at Adelaide in 1843. The principal race club, the South Australian Jockey Club (SAJC), was founded in 1856.

Organised racing was first held in Tasmania in 1814 at Newtown, near Hobart. The Tasmanian Turf Club (TTC) was formed in 1871, but the major club, the Tasmanian Racing Club (TRC), was not established until 1874.

Thoroughbred racing commenced in Western Australia in 1836. The Western Australian Turf Club (WATC) was established in 1852.

By 1883, 192 country clubs were registered to race under Australian Jockey Club rules.

In the Northern Territory, the Darwin Turf Club was established in May 1955.Darwin Turf Club Retrieved on 5 June 2009

Breeders and stud farms The early breeders of Australian bloodstock were men of historical significance such as Robert Campbell, William Lawson, John Macarthur, John Piper, Richard Rouse of Rouse Hill and D'Arcy Wentworth.

Charles Smith established Bungarribee stud at Doonside, New South Wales, shortly after 1830, which only had pure-bred English horses. It was Charles Smith who bred the great colonial stallion, Sir Hercules who was foaled in 1843.

James White (1828–1890), owner of Kirkham Stud, was one of the most successful owner/breeders in Australian racing with his horses winning two Melbourne Cups, six Victoria Derbies and five AJC Derbies.

The three eastern mainland states supply 85% of Australian racehorses with the Hunter Valley being the favoured region for thoroughbred horses in New South Wales. In Queensland the Darling Downs is the major nursery. Hurtle Fisher's Maribyrnong Stud was a famous stud in Victoria where expensive imported horses were used until it was dispersed in 1866. The St Albans Stud at Geelong was established in the 1850s and was still operating over 100 years later. Tranquil Star was bred here and Briseis was bred, owned and trained by James Wilson at this stud.

The Widden Stud in the Hunter Valley, NSW was established by John Thompson in 1867. Since then Widden Stud has been home to some of the finest stallions and broodmares including the following who were all at various times Australia's champion sire; Lochiel (four times leading sire), Grafton (four times), Maltster (five times), Bletchingly (three times), Vain (once) and Marscay (twice). Heroic, Ajax and Todman were other famous Widden stallions. The stud has had a seven generation unbroken chain of ownership under the Thompson family.

Percy Miller (1879–1948) in 1914 established Kia Ora Stud just east of Scone. Miller imported the leading sire, Magpie (GB) who ran second in the English 2,000 Guineas Stakes. This stallion sired Windbag, Amounis and Talking. Kia Ora Stud had the leading imported sires, Midstream and Delville Wood who sired champions, Shannon (exported to the United States), Delta, Hydrogen and Evening Peal etc., plus a superb band of brood mares.Kia-Ora Retrieved on 2009-4-29

Stanley Wootton exerted a major influence on Australian racing when he imported the stallion Star Kingdom, now recognised as the most influential sire line in this country. Wootton also bred the outstanding Biscay and Bletchingly.

Jockeys

Australian jockeys are some of the best in the world and were among the first in the world to experiment with the crouched riding style. In the late 19th century Tot Flood and James Barden pioneered this crouch style in Australia independently of the American, Tod Sloan, after whom the style was named. Australian jockeys have successfully ridden on racecourses across the world. Some of the notable jockeys include, Scobie Breasley (four times British champion jockey), Edgar Britt, Mick Dittman, Roy Higgins, George T. D. Moore, Nash Rawiller, Neville Sellwood, Harry White and Bill Williamson.

In the 1850s amateur "ladies only" events were held in Victoria, Australia but women were not permitted to ride as professional jockeys or on professional tracks. Although women jockeys were still barred from riding in the mid-20th century Wilhemena Smith rode as Bill Smith at north Queensland racecourses.Just Racing Retrieved on 5 May 2009