Roxby Downs racecourse was founded only six years after the Roxby Downs township. It was established in 1986 to provide infrastructure for the huge BHP Billiton mining operations at Olympic Dam. The annual Roxby Downs Outback Cup race meeting is held in August and is the biggest event of the year for the local population of 4000. Roxby Downs Racing Club held its first unregistered meeting on a its red dirt course in 1992 before a crowd of more than 2000 attended the first registered meeting in 1994.