Top Races At The Rosehill Gardens Racecourse

Rosehill Gardens Racecourse is located in Western Sydney in the suburb of Rosehill and was first opened in 1885. It is a turf track with a circumference of 2048 metres, with the main straight being 408 metres long. The current owner and operator of Rosehill is The Australian Turf Club since they took over in 2011 after the Sydney Turf Club combined with the Australian Jockey Club. It is one of two prestigious racecourses in Sydney along with the Royal Randwick Racecourse.

The Golden Slipper

The Golden Slipper Stakes is a Group 1 thoroughbred race for 2-year-olds. It is a right-handed set-weights race, run over a distance of 1200 metres. The event was first run in 1957 when it was won by Todman, a champion Australian racehorse and sire. The most recent win was by Stay Inside in March 2021, ridden by Jockey Tommy Berry.

In 1986 it became the first race in New South Wales to have prize money of $1,000,000. It is currently the richest 2-year-old race in the world with prize money of $3,5000,000. A Golden Slipper bet should not be off the table, with only champion horses racing. Legendary Australian horse trainer, Gai Waterhouse, has won the event 7 times and jockeys Shane Dye and Rob Quinton have both taken the Slipper 4 times.

Golden Eagle

The Golden Eagle is a new 1500 metre race at Rosehill Racecourse that was inaugurated in 2019 with prize money of $7,500,000, making it the fourth richest turf race in the world, behind The Everest, the Melbourne Cup and Frances Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. The inaugural race was won by Kolding, ridden by jockey Glen Boss and trained by Chris Waller. The race is open to 4-year-olds at set-weights with the most recent race being October 2021 where it was won by Kiwi racehorse I’m Thunderstruck and ridden by champion jockey Hugh Bowman.

George Ryder Stakes

This Group 1 thoroughbred horserace was inaugurated in 1903 as the Railway Stakes and has gone through many name changes since then, with it being renamed the George Ryder Stakes in 1974. It was previously also known as the Railway Handicap (1915-1945), the Railway Quality Handicap (1946-1967) and the CP Air Quality Hcp (1968-1970). The distance of the race has changed as well, starting at 1300 metres and changing over the years before settling on 1500 metres since 1986.

Several horses have won the race twice including Prince Regoli in 1962 and 1963, Foresight in 1968-69, Manikato in 1979-80 and Emancipation in 1983-84. Champion Racehorse Winx is the only horse to win more than twice, knocking up 4 wins in a row from 2016-2019. The most recent winner was Think It Over in 2021.

Rosehill Guineas

This is another Group 1 thoroughbred race for 3-year-olds at a set weight and offers total prize money of $600,000. It was inaugurated in 1910 where distance was measured at 7 furlongs. It has been 2000 metres since 1973 and was upgraded from a principal race to a Group 1 race in 1980.  There have been many well-known champion horses to win the Rosehill Guineas over the years including Phar Lap (1929), Tulloch (1957), Kingston Town (1980) and Octagonal in 1996. Octagonal also shares the time record for this race with Danewin, who won in 1995 with a record-breaking time of 1:59.99.

With all of these top Group 1 races, a day at Rosehill Gardens is one well spent for any horse racing fan.