The Adelaide Cup horse race is a major sporting and social event in South Australia, and race day has been a public holiday since 1973.  

Before 2006, the race was held in May. In a bid to boost the popularity of the race it was moved in 2006 to March to warmer and less rainy month in South Australia. 

Conducted by the South Australian Jockey Club, the Adelaide Cup is one of Australia’s oldest races, first won by Falcon in 1864, making it only three years younger than the other great Australian horse race, Melbourne Cup.  

2014 marked the 150th Anniversary of the first Adelaide Cup, though the 150th Adelaide Cup race will happen in 2019 as the race was not run for three years in the 1880s and banned for two years during World War II. 

With only a few exceptions, the race has been run at Morphettville Racecourse since. The Adelaide Cup is the feature race of the Adelaide Cup Carnival and the public holiday ensures that the race meeting is well attended with large and enthusiastic crowds. 

Beginning as a race run over 13 furlongs, the track distance was increased to 16 furlongs in 1945 until 1973 when Australia’s adoption of the metric system saw the Adelaide Cup run over 3200m. The race gained Group 1 status in 1989 and was a Group 1 event until 2007, when it was downgraded to Group 2 status much the same way as the Brisbane Cup was.