Australian Autumn Racing Carnival

In Australia there are racing carnivals to suit every season, especially with the arrival of Autumn.

The Autumn Racing Carnival is also held in Melbourne and Sydney and features some of the year's most important horse races, including the All Star Mile and Golden Slipper and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. 

In case you are unaware and jumped straight to this chapter, for each of the races, I have included the race name, race distance, whether Group 1 or 2 etc, the horse entry conditions including Weight-For-Age where applicable, the prize money and of course the racecourse.

Melbourne also hosts an Autumn Racing Carnival, which can start as early as late January and continue right through to April, featuring some tremendous racing, including numerous Group 1 & Feature races, across the familiar Flemington, Caulfield and Moonee Valley racecourses.

Listed here are the races worthy of note:

The Australian Cup today is run over 2,000 metres but until the 1940s it was Australia´s premium long distance race, run over a longer distance (3,600 metres) than the Melbourne Cup.

It is worth noting that Caulfield was due to close for six months in 2022 as part the Melbourne Racing Club's plan to build a second track at the venue and this has meant that 10 race meetings have moved temporarily to Sandown (including the Blue Diamond Stakes).

The Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival is equally as big as the Melbourne edition. There are 18 Group 1 races with over $40m in prize money. The first half is primarily based at Rosehill Gardens with 7 Group 1 races and then the attention turns to Royal Randwick for a simply massive program of racing, starting with a real show stopper, the Golden Slipper, the richest race in the world for 2yr olds and which was first run in 1957.

Randwick Autumn Racing Carnival

Rosehill Autumn Racing Carnival

While Sydney and Melbourne get a lot of the attention, we can't forget about the Adelaide Autumn Racing Carnival, featuring four key races at Morphettville Racecourse. The Adelaide Autumn Racing Carnival is conveinently placed between the Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival and the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival.

While there is only one key race that takes place during the Perth Autumn Racing Carnival, it is a fairly significant one! The Quokka, raced at Ascot Racecourse is worth a cool $5,000,000 and always attracts quality racehorses.