Racing across Australia can be broadly separated into three levels;

• Major Circuit Racing
• Mid-level Circuit Racing
• Low-level Circuit Racing

Major Circuit racing

The most important racing occurs in each of the Capital Cities and below each State & Capital is listed with the major racetracks in that City;

• Victoria - Melbourne (Flemington, home of the Melbourne Cup, Sandown, Caulfield, Moonee Valley.
• New South Wales - Sydney (Randwick, Rosehill, Canterbury, Warwick Farm)
• Queensland - Brisbane (Eagle Farm, Doomben, Ipswich)
• South Australia - Adelaide (Morphettville, Victoria Park, Cheltenham)
• Western Australia - Perth (Ascot, Belmont Park)
• Tasmania - Hobart (Elwick), Launceston (Mowbray)

Racing is conducted at these major racetracks every Saturday (Friday in Nth America) and on Public Holidays.

Some midweek meetings Wednesday (Tuesday in Nth America) are also held at these tracks.

Major Circuit Racing or Metropolitan Racing is the highest standard of racing held in Australia.

All the best horses, riders and trainers appear at these meetings.


Mid-level Circuit Racing

The mid-level circuit of racing is what is called Provincial racing in Australia.

Here racing is conducted on high quality tracks at major provincial centres located around the Capital cities in each State.

Again an example of the most common provincial tracks in each State is listed below.

• Victoria (Bendigo, Ballarat, Mornington, Seymour, Cranbourne)
• New South Wales (Kembla Grange, Gosford, Newcastle, Wyong, Hawkesbury)
• Queensland (Gold Coast, Caloundra, Toowoomba)
• South Australia (Strathalbyn, Balaklava, Murray Bridge, Gawler)
• Western Australia (Pinjarra, Northam, Kalgoorlie, Bunbury)

Simulcast/TAB meetings are generally conducted on these provincial tracks on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. (Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday Nth America time)

Horses racing on these Mid-Level Circuits often feed into the Major Circuit racing meetings.


Low-level Circuit Racing

The low-level circuit of racecourses are designated as Country.

These meetings are conducted at the major country centres in each State and once again the quality of racetrack is very high.

Simulcast/TAB meetings are conducted on the country racetracks generally on Monday and Friday. (Sunday/Thursday Nth America time)

Example of some of the country tracks are as follows;

• Victoria (Swan Hill, Echuca, Hamilton)
• New South Wales (Cessnock, Muswelbrook, Murwillumbah, Queanbeyan)
• Queensland (Esk, Gatton, Kilcoy)
• South Australia (Port Augusta, Clare)
• Western Australia (Canarvon)

Horses racing at these low-level circuit meetings mainly feed into the Mid-level circuits of racing but occasionally can start on the Major circuits.

Generally horses racing at these low-level meetings have been sold out of major circuit stables and seldom, if ever return to that level of racing.