A Day at the Races: the Horse In Australia
The first horses arrived in Australia in January 1788 when, along with the First Fleet's convict cargo, a stallion, four mares, a colt and a filly were landed at Port Jackson. By 1810 there were 203 horses in New South Wales, and the horse population rose dramatically throughout the 19th century - at its peak, there was approximately one horse for every two people in Australia.
The introduction of the horse proved essential to the settlement and development of Australia, for transportation, in agriculture and industry and for communication.
New Post Office, George Street, Sydney, 1846, by Edward Winstanley
Watercolour DG SV1A/22
In the early days horses were scarce and expensive. Military officers and free landowners rode saddle horses to set themselves apart from the under classes - quickly establishing the cult of horse ownership. Most of the horses imported into the colony were of high quality. Rockingham, the first English thoroughbred stallion, was shipped out from South Africa in the late 1790s by a young naval officer named Henry Waterhouse.
Detail from Letter, 20 Aug 1797, by Henry Waterhouse
Manuscript MLMSS 6544/1
Horse racing was one of the first sporting activities organised in the colony. Race-going cuts across all levels of society and continues to play a significant part in Australian sporting history.
First colonial racing carnival
By the early 1800s, New South Wales was more than just a prison attached to a military garrison - it was home to free settlers, ex-convicts and colonial-born European-Australians. With a limited round of social activity available in Sydney, Governor Lachlan Macquarie ushered in a new era for Australian popular culture when he approved the establishment of an annual racing carnival.
Above left: Lachlan Macquarie, 1819, by unknown artist, watercolour on ivory MIN 236
Above right: Elizabeth Macquarie, 1819, by unknown artist, watercolour on ivory MIN 237
After their arrival in 1810, Governor and Mrs Macquarie set an unprecedented tone in colonial horse ownership and transportation by travelling around town - and into the countryside - in a splendid carriage drawn by four horses. The Macquarie's also commissioned convict architect, Francis Greenway, to design a large and extravagant stable building (now the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music) to accommodate the equine residents of Government House.
Government stables, 1842, by Conrad Martens
Oil painting DG 51
In October 1810, Governor Macquarie inaugurated the first official race meeting at the new Sydney Racecourse as part of his grand plan to improve the cultural life of Sydney. In keeping with his enlightened ideas for social progress, Macquarie saw the racecourse as a perfect neutral meeting place for colonists of all classes: military, convict, emancipist and immigrant alike.
Funded by public subscription, in August 1810 soldiers of Macquarie's 73rd Regiment cleared and levelled ground on the eastern edge of the town and marked out the course. The straight commenced at the turn from Park Street into Elizabeth Street, with the grandstand (erected in 1813) and the winning post at the junction of Market and Elizabeth Street, on the present day site of St James Station.
On Monday 15 October, crowds gathered on the Sydney Racecourse in the new public open space which the Governor named Hyde Park. The race program continued over three days and D'arcy Wentworth's mount, Gig, ridden by his son, William Charles Wentworth, won the three mile race on the first day, marking the beginning of this family's involvement in the Sydney racing scene.
The Governor and Mrs Macquarie attended each days' racing. On the second day, Mrs Macquarie presented the Ladies' Cup, valued at 50 guineas, to Captain Ritchie for the win by his grey gelding Chance - the fastest horse over two miles.
Read about Australia's first official race meeting.
'Sydney Races', The Sydney Gazette & NSW Advertiser, 20 Oct 1810, p.2
Newspaper F8/55
