It is fair to say that 2025’s racing year in Australia has had it all.
And, by that I mean, crowds up, turnover up, Champions crowned, world’s best here, infrastructure upgrades, historical moments, astonishing prizemoney, and well, fun!
Probably the highlight on the track was the well-overdue coming of age for female hoops.
Jamie Melham’s double in winning the Gr 1 Caulfield Cup into the Gr 1 Melbourne Cup was historic.
No female has EVER done that or even come close before.
So kudos on a mega scale to Jamie, who is now the best female rider in the world, and her mount HALF YOURS who claimed both races, and must surely win Stayer Of the Year.
On the other side of the coin, KA YING RISING, the world’s best sprinter visited us from his base in Hong Kong for our $20million The Everest and won that too, franking how good racing and our prizemoney structure are.
The trip didn’t hurt him because a month later, back in Hong Kong, he absolutely blitzed a Gr 1 field in near track record time.
At Randwick on The Everest day, the glorious sounds of 52,000 singing Sweet Caroline, echoing all over Sydney has now fast become an anthem of tremendous significance.
And, down in Victoria the Spring Racing Carnival was profoundly well received and continues to grow also. Channel 9 did a great job with its TV coverage, 589,000 people turned up on track for the races, marking an increase in recent years, and turnover on the Cup itself was very strong.
But, one thing noted that comes under the historical side of things, like Jamie winning both the grand slam Cups, was the way people wagered this year.
There’s been a shift in how audiences access and watch racing. Digital platforms saw a massive increase in usage – online, on phones, tablets et al.
This helped make wagering and pushing crowds to attend the country and provincial Cups, to all time highs as well. So, the sport is on an upward spiral still, despite the growing numbers of protestors who gather outside courses on the big race days.
The training efforts of the greats like Chris Waller; Ciaron Maher, Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott, Joe Pride and the Freedmans were simply superb.
Pride in particular has burst onto the scene in an amazing way and his stable’s wins towards the end of 2025, were breathtaking led by his best horse CEOLWULF a multiple Gr 1 winner, and his favourite horse, COAL CRUSHER, who as an 8YO, added $792,000 to his bank account just this year. A great career and a far cry from his Orange Mdn win back in 2021.
That in itself, keeping these great athletes in the game was another hallmark of the year noted by pundits.
When Godolphin decided to stop using just one trainer and disperse their army of superstars, it reaped rewards immediately and we saw four of their best, TEMPTED, TENTYRIS, OBSERVER and ATTICA all run themselves into 5-star categories with Tentyris looming as a potential champion of the future.
His Gr 1 win in the stallion-making Coolmore Stud Stakes left no-one in any doubt that he was headed for absolute greatness and a mouth-watering clash in next year’s The Everest with Ka Ying Rising, should it happen, suggests records across the board in every category will be broken.
VIA SISTINA the queen of southern hemisphere racing and quite possibly the world, continued to shine the light on females in our sport. She won several Gr 1s again this year, but her 2nd Cox Plate win followed by an easy Champions Stakes Gr 1 win a few weeks later, were outstanding.
She has to be strongly fancied to win Horse Of The Year.
Chris Waller trains her and what a question it would be to ask him: “So, Chris, Winx, Verry Elleegant and now Via Sistina, the best three racing mares of the past 50 years in Australia, put them in order please.” He’d have Winx on top, but the other pair – hmmm tough call indeed, and to add to that debate his unbeaten rising superstar mare AUTUMN GLOW who won the $10million Golden Eagle at Randwick a month after winning the Gr 1 Epsom Hcp at the same track, this year, must be knocking on the door of that conversation too.
Eight starts, eight wins and $6.8million in prizemoney suggests she should be.
As for the babies this year, the 2025 Gr 1 Golden Slipper was won in great fashion by the filly MARHOONA who then at her next start broke the Slipper non-winning again hoodoo by claiming the Heritage stakes, for trainer Michael Freedman, should come back a star in 2026. Mind you, Tempted was 3rd in that Slipper and should have won, but take nothing away from Marhoona.
So, in summary, we had a good, no, GREAT year of racing and all the main metrics, including improved breeding, suggest 2026 will be even better.
One last thought to linger over, at the yearling sales this year, we saw a record price paid of $10million for a baby, the daughter of Winx.
She is yet to race but should in 2026!
Bring on next year.