Oakbank Racecourse

Oakbank Racecourse, also but less frequently known as the "Onkaparinga Racecourse", is home of the Oakbank Racing Club, a club which, until 2009, raced just twice annually, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday at the Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival, and has done continually since 1876, except during World War II when it was held at Victoria Park and Morphettville Racecourse due to the army taking over the facility.

Oakbank Racecourse
Oakbank
LocationOakwood Road, Oakbank, South Australia
OwnerOakbank Racing Club
OperatorOakbank Racing Club
Capacity70,000 (approx)
SurfaceGrass
Opened1876

Located in South Australia's Adelaide Hills, it's the home of steeplechasing and jumping in SA, which combines with flat racing over the festival, including the famous Great Eastern Steeplechase.

Massive crowd decline

Oakbank crowds have plummeted in recent years due to a range of factors - competition for the entertainment dollar, a change in program, entry fee of $30 per person and opposition to jumps racing. Easter Saturday now attracts maximum crowds of 20,000, when the feature Great Eastern Steeplechase is run, and Monday now attracts about 5,000 people. The racing carnival used to attract massive crowds, with about 40,000 attending the Saturday meeting and up around 70,000 attending on Easter Monday. This equates to just 25% of the two-day crowds the carnival enjoyed 10 years ago.

From 2009 the inaugural Oakbank Prelude Raceday has taken place two weeks before Easter, marking the first time that a separate meeting to the Easter Carnival has taken place at Oakbank. The famous Von Doussa Steeplechase is run on this program. This has discouraged interest from leading NZ stables who are not prepared to come to SA for more than two weeks. As a result, the jumps features have become very small races, with the 2019 Great Eastern attracting only five runners.

Jumps-racing controversy

The Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival has received backlash from the RSPCA Australia,[1]Animals Australia,[2] and The Humane Society International Australia[3] for the number of deaths associated with jumps-racing. There have been 7 reported horse deaths during jumps-races at Oakbank since 2010, including 2 in 2010, 1 in 2011, 2 in 2012, 1 in 2014 and 1 in 2017.[4][5] In Australia, Victoria and South Australia are the only states where jumps-racing is still legal.

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References
  1. "RSPCA Jumps-racing".
  2. "Animals Australia submission on Jumps-racing" (PDF).
  3. Human Society International Australia. "Jumps racing".
  4. RSPCA. "The illogical races: the deaths".
  5. "Wheeler Fortune euthanased after fall at Oakbank jumps race". ABC News. 15 April 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2017.


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