Horse racing

Horse 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.

Thoroughbred horse racing is the third most attended spectator sport in Australia, behind Australian Rules football and rugby league, with almost 2 million admissions to the 379 racecourses throughout Australia in 2002-2003. Besides being a spectator sport, horse racing 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 owners, or members of syndicates in the 31,000 horses in training in Australia. .

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 both the Melbourne Cup and VRC Oaks. The Caulfield Cup and W S Cox Plate are also major attractions.

Australia was the source of one of the major developments in race wagering - the totalisator or tote - an analogue computer which allowed the automatic calculation of race odds given betting patterns.

There are four main avenues for race betting in Australia.

1. Licensed on-track bookmakers offer fixed-odds betting, mostly on wins and places.
2. Off-track betting was traditionally controlled by the various state government through organisation called "Totalisator Agency Boards" (TAB), which offered mainly parimutuel betting - that is, the odds were not fixed but involved "the house" taking a fixed cut and distributing the remainder amongst people who made a winning bet. Many of these "TABs" have now been privatised, and many pubs now offer betting services linked to the privatised offshoots of the companies.
3. In some parts of Australia there was a tradition of illegal off-course bookmaking, known as SP bookmaking historically involving significant turnover, though it is unclear whether this is still the case.
4. Finally, there is Betfair, a person to person betting exchange, which has recently made inroads into the Australian market.ddd

Flemington Racecourse is a major horse racing venue located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is most notable for hosting the Melbourne Cup, which is Australia's richest horse race. The racecourse is situated on low alluvial flats, next to the Maribyrnong River. The area was first used for horse racing in March, 1840.

Flemington Racecourse today hosts many of Australia's top races, including the Melbourne Cup, VRC Derby, VRC Oaks, MacKinnon Stakes, Newmarket Handicap, Australian Cup and Lightning Stakes.

Caulfield Racecourse is one of Melbourne, Australia's best-known horse-racing tracks. Commonly known as "The Heath", it is located 8 kilometres from the Melbourne CBD, on the boundary of Caulfield and Caulfield East in Melbourne's south eastern suburbs. It is home to the Melbourne Racing Club.

The track is 30 metres wide, with a circumference of 2080 metres and a finishing straight of 367 metres. All turns have a 4% to 6 % banking. Racing takes place in an ant-clockwise direction. The totally glassed in Rupert Clarke stand provides an uninterrupted view of the racecourse

Caulfield has about 20 racedays each season and hosts some of the Australia's most famous and historic races including the Caulfield Cup, Caulfield Guineas, Blue Diamond Stakes, C F Orr Stakes, Oakleigh Plate and Futurity Stakes.
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The following is a list of Group races which are run at Flemington Racecourse.

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