Horse Racing Around the World

Australians are famous for a predilection for gambling and a fondness for horses.

It is not surprising that horse racing is something more than popular.

Australian jockeys usually have a quiet style and are good judges of pace; many of them have ridden with great success in Europe or America, notably Rae Johnstone, Scobie Breasley, and George Moore.

There are several hundred courses in Australia, and not unnaturally the more important are in the bigger towns.

Melbourne is perhaps the biggest center and stages the Melbourne Cup at Flemington and the Caulfield Cup at Caulfield.

Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane all have three or four courses.

Bookmakers are being replaced by the tote in Australia, particularly in off-course betting, and as in France a percentage of the profit is given back to the sport, and is used to improve the racing and the facilities.

Racing in New Zealand is conducted on the same lines as in Australia, the principal track being Ellerslie, near Auckland.

A legendary Australian racehorse, Phar Lap, was bred in New Zealand. He won 37 races, including the Melbourne Cup, before dying mysteriously while on a tour of Mexico and America.

Phar Lap can be seen at Melbourne, where he stands in a glass case at a museum.

On the continent, racing is popular in Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Scandinavia, as well as in France, and perhaps Italy takes pride of place, because of two world-famous horses.

Nearco was the first and he had a brilliant career on the course, and at stud, where his line includes important winners in Europe and America.

Rome and San Siro, near Milan, are the centers of racing in Italy, and it was at San Siro that Ribot, whom many consider the greatest of all racehorses, first established his reputation.

He was unremarkable to look at, but was unbeaten, winning all the important Italian races as well as the Arc de Triomphe twice and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

Retired to stud in 1957, Ribot has sired Ribocco, who won English and Irish classics, Molvedo, who won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Arts and Letters, the great American champion, and other good horses.

Racing is popular in South Africa, despite an unhelpful climate, and Wilwyn, the first winner of the Washington International, is at stud there.

The principal tracks are around Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. South African horses rarely travel abroad, but jockey John Gorton, who came to England in 1969, soon demonstrated that he was of the highest class.

British flat-race jockeys sometimes ride in India in the close season, and no doubt British rule did a lot to establish racing there. Bombay and Calcutta are the main centers.