Major carnivals (known in the UK as festivals) traverse the length and breadth of the country throughout the year. Melbourne is known for its spring carnival (October-November), featuring the Caulfield Cup (Gr1 Handicap over 2400m), the W.S. Cox Plate (WFA championship of Australasia) a week later, Victoria Derby and then the Melbourne Cup, the most famous Australian race of them all.

In the Australian autumn, the focus is firmly on Sydney. The Randwick carnival in early April features the Australian Derby, the Doncaster Handicap (the world's richest mile handicap), the AJC Oaks and concludes with the Sydney Cup on the following Saturday. Each day's card is littered with black-type (pattern) racing and supported by meetings around the nation.

To help you find a winner in Australia, try our excellent Australian and NZ Racing Zone with form stats, the Betfair WAP (Weighted Average Price) and live prices comparing the Betfair market with all Australian totes. Betting in Australia is dominated by the totes rather than fixed-odds like the UK, so these generally serve as a better market guide. Pre-post markets rarely exist for anything other than Saturday metropolitan meetings and the big feature races. Note the tote prices shown on ATR's overnight coverage are from the very small USA pools and are usually irrelevant.

Here's a selection of valuable links and resources, all of which are completely independent of Betfair:

Racenet (racing news and form - free)
Racing And Sports (racing news, results and form)
Trackdata (analysis and excellent links section)
Sport927 (live audio for racing, harness and dogs)
Best Bets (form - free and premium)
SMH Formguide (interactive scans of the daily racing guide from the Sydney Morning Herald)
Expertform (form - free and premium)
Dynamic Race Odds (racing odds comparison - free and premium)
BigPond Racing - (results and replays from selected venues)

If the evening racing from Australia suits your body clock better, then harness and greyhound racing could be more appropriate.

Harness.org (harness racing fields, form and replays)
Greyhound Form (greyhound information)

All Australian thoroughbred racing is now offered in-play. Note that Australian harness racing is also listed under 'Horse Racing' with no differentiation - main venues are Melton, Menangle, Gloucester Park, Globe Derby, but there are many more. The word Pace or Trot, followed by an M (Mobile start) or S (Standing start) will signify a harness race.