The Tygalgah racecourse was purchased for 700 pounds. The first race meeting held on the Tweed River was in 1884 where the initial handicap race was run for 40 pounds. The following year it was increased to 70 pounds and then in 1886, it was increased to 75 pounds and named the Tweed River Handicap. In 1887, the new “good course down near the bridge” ran its first Tweed River Handicap which was run for a total of 100 sovereigns which can be purchased for over $100,000 today. Records of the Tweed River Handicap run until the 1950's where it was used as the race for the Cup double.

 

The first running of the Murwillumbah Cup was in 1948 where Logie O’Buchan over the 7 furlongs run for a total of 200 pounds. In 1964, the Murwillumbah Cup was ran on ANZAC Day when the articles suggest the cars were lined up for a mile trying to get into the racecourse as the Queenslanders fled their state due to the shops being closed. The Murwillumbah Cup was moved to the final Sunday in June in the early 1990's and then moved back to its current home on a late Friday in August in 2017.

 

The Murwillumbah Cup has been an instrumental race for horses such as Flash Hero who won the 1963 and 1964 editions of the Cup. He also won a Grafton, Ballina and Casino Cup as well as Brisbane’s Easter Cup and Labour Day Cup. He raced 163 times including in the Doomben Cup.

 

Historically, Vo Rogue was unplaced in a $1,600 race at Murwillumbah in 1986. Famously, he went on to win two Australian Cups and an an inductee to the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.

 

More recently, Care to Think (Matthew Dunn) has been achieved a career-high rating of 105 and won the Restricted Listed Magic Millions Cup. Gracie Belle (Matthew Dunn) won the 2020 Newhaven Park Country Championships. Far Too Easy (David McColm) has placed in two Kosciuszko’s and 4th in the 2022 Newhaven Park Country Championships. He has recently ran 2nd in Group 2 The Star Moreton Cup (1200m) and won the Listed Lough Neagh Stakes. Cepheus (GB) (Matthew Dunn) has now won two Group 2 races, the Ajax and Shannon Stakes, as well as the South Grafton Cup and the $1.5m Alan Brown Stakes. More recently, Matthew Dunn’s Boom Torque and Derry Grove won respective races at the 2024 Magic Millions Raceday at the Gold Coast Turf Club.

 

Since the introduction of the Big Dance concept, Murwillumbah has successfully qualified a runner each year with Cepheus running 2nd in the 2023 edition and Impasse running in the 2022 edition.