Mackay racecourse is the home of the Mackay Turf Club and is also known as Ooralea racecourse. Mackay Turf Club is one of Queensland’s leading country race clubs, conducting over 20 race meetings each year including the popular Mackay Cup carnival in July. The first race meeting was held at Ooralea racecourse in 1867 following the formation of Mackay Turf Club. From the 1920s the Mackay Turf Club began racing on a fortnightly basis and from 1971 racing became a weekly event at the Ooralea course until the reformation of TAB race dates under Queensland Racing. There have been several other Mackay clubs to race at Ooralea including the Tattersall’s Race Club and Hibernian Race Club, both formed in the 1880s, Mackay Amateur Race Club from 1915 and Mackay Diggers Race Club from the 1920s.

Mackay Turf Club is now the sole tenant of the Ooralea course. Mackay racecourse underwent a $7.4 million upgrade to the track and facilities in 2014 including a state-of-the-art event centre. Mackay’s Ooralea racecourse is located 5km from the Mackay CBD and is close to Mackay Airport, a southern gateway to the Great Barrier Reef that lies off the Mackay coast. The Mackay course proper is a Strathayr surface with a circumference of 1600 metres. The oval design is constantly turning and being only 18 metres wide can favour horses racing on the pace. The length of the home straight is 310 metres. Mackay racecourse caters for races over distances from 1050m to 1800m with four starting chutes. The track is of circular shape and is only 18m in width. It is also  always turning and is tough away from the rails.