on Easter Monday at Oakbank, South Australia drawing crowds of over 100,000, and the Grand Annual, which has the most fences of any steeplechase in the world, is held in May at Warrnambool, Victoria From the late 1800s to the 1930s the McGowan Family of Brooklyn Park South Australia, were leaders in steeplechase and hurdle racing events. Jack McGowan winning the ARC Grand National, the Oakbank Hurdle, the VRC Cup Hurdle and the Harry D Young Hurdle while his son John McGowan won a record 22 hurdle / steeplechase events in one season. Each state holds its own Grand National race: the most prestigious is the VRC Grand National at Flemington run in the winter. The jumping season culminates with the set-weights-and-penalties Hiskens Steeple run at Moonee Valley. The Hiskens is regarded as the Cox Plate of jumps racing. The most famous Australian horse in the field was Crisp, who was narrowly beaten by the champion Red Rum in the 1973 English Grand National. Crisp subsequently beat Red Rum at set weights. Oju Chosan has won Japan's Nakayama Grand Jump five consecutive times. Jumps racing was set to end in Victoria after the 2010 season. In September 2010, having satisfied a limit on the maximum number of deaths among starting horses, hurdle racing was granted a 3-year extension by Racing Victoria. A decision regarding steeplechase was postponed until October 2010 when a program for the 2011 season only was granted. Since 2012, both hurdle races and steeplechases have been approved by Racing Victoria. Japan The Nakayama Racecourse is Japan's premier steeplechase racetrack. The two most prestigious races are the Nakayama Daishogai (first held in 1934) and the Nakayama Grand Jump (held since 1999). Both races have prize money of about 140 million yen, similar to Aintree's Grand National. The Hanshin Racecourse and the Kokura Racecourse also host graded steeplechase races. Statistics Number of jumping races by country in 2008. Great Britain : 3,366 France : 2,194 Ireland : 1,434 United States of America : 200 Australia : 146 Japan : 132 New Zealand : 129 Germany : 58 Opposition to jumps racing Australia In 2021, jumps racing in Australia was only run in Victoria and South Australia, though, contrary to common belief, only New South Wales had banned it. All six states and Australian Capital Territory have some history of jumps racing and the states that stopped conducting jumps racings