AUSTRALIAN RACING A GUIDE TO THE ... - Australian Racing Board

WELCOmE 2010
The Australian Racing Board is pleased to publish the Twelfth Edition of the Australian Racing Fact Book, our
annual reference guide to the Australian thoroughbred racing industry.
The Board’s objective in publishing the Fact Book is to draw together under one cover the key results and
statistics for the Australian thoroughbred sector for each season. While a number of books and journals report in
detail particular aspects of Australian racing and breeding, we can well and truly say that the Australian Racing
Board’s 1999 vision has been achieved, and the Fact Book has established itself as a useful and reliable source of
the broadest range of information relating to Australian thoroughbred racing and breeding.
The facts and figures contained in the Fact Book will speak for themselves. To breathe some life into this
statistical record it is useful to briefly touch on some of the stand-out achievements that have occurred during
the period under review.
2010 saw the Bart Cummings trained So You Think claim four Group 1 races including his second Cox plate,
before going on to run a gallant third in the Melbourne Cup behind French-trained horse, Americain. As well as
siring the Cox Plate winner, stallion High Chaparral also provided Gai Waterhouse with her first Caulfield Cup
victory, with Descarado taking out the event.
Typhoon Tracy claimed the tightly contested Champion Racehorse of the year award for trainer peter moody after
taking out the Group 1 myer Classic, Group 1 C F Orr Stakes, Group 1 Futurity Stakes and Group 1 Queen of the
Turf Stakes.
Crystal Lily took out the honors as Champion 2yo of the year after winning the Golden Slipper providing trainers
Matthew Ellerton & Simon Zahra, along with jockey Brett Prebble, with their first win in this iconic race.
Stepping back to examine the broader canvas, 2010 marked the bicentenary of racing in this country. In October
1810 Governor Macquarie, officers of the 73rd regiment and emancipated convicts – pimps, prostitutes, forgerers
and other felons - rubbed shoulders together at a three day race meeting in Hyde park Sydney. Perhaps this was
the seed from which Australian democracy was born – the sense that on the turf, and under it, all men are equal.
Two centuries later Australian racing spans both the calendar and the continent: some 400 race clubs conduct
17,000 races barring only Good Friday and Christmas day. 120,000 flock to Flemington on the first Tuesday in
November and in September the population of Birdsville in remote outback Queensland swells from 100 to 6,000
for a two-day race meeting. Somewhere along the way the sport of racing has become the Australian racing
industry. The second-largest foal crop in the world is exported to 24 countries as well as putting 200,000 starters
on Australian race tracks every year. To give you some sense of the scale: 50,000 employees, $5 billion in gross
domestic product, and 2 million Australians attending at least one race meeting a year.
Compiling the Fact Book depends on the co-operation of a range of people and organisations, and our genuine
thanks are expressed to them for their willing assistance.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the enterprise and excellent work performed by Jake Howard and Ashley
Broderick, the Fact Book’s editor and compiler respectively. They have worked long hours and with great
diligence, resulting in this outstanding publication.
6 www.australianracingboard.com.au
R G (Bob) Bentley
Chairman
Australian Racing Board Limited