Santa Tereasa/Ltyentye Apurte races celebrate Indigenous horsemanship and community tradition

A crowd cheers as horses gallop past the finishing post, but this is no ordinary race.

On the first weekend in October every year, Indigenous men and women gather for the Santa Tereasa/Ltyentye Apurte races, about 70 kilometres south-east of Alice Springs.

In this remote corner of central Australia, helmets are optional, chunky stock saddles replace light saddle pads, and children run barefoot across the red dusty track between races.

Behind the rail, spectators swap fascinators for sports caps and reverse their utes up to the track boundary for the best views.

The prize money is enough to cover some extra groceries from town, but jockeys and owners know the event is about more than winning.

Atyenhenge Atherre Aboriginal Corporation (AAAC) chair Raymond Plamer said the annual amateur race meet had been running since about the 1960s, a time when many of the region's Indigenous people worked as stock workers on cattle stations.

"[It's] very important to us, because we had this race for years for our forefathers," he said.

"We will continue to keep it going."

Walkabout Bore horseman Peter Kenny has been coming to the races since the early 90s and said the event was as exciting as ever.

Like many who travelled hours over rough, tyre gouging roads to come to the race, Mr Kenny learnt how to handle horses from his father.

"That's what I grew up doing, riding horses and breaking them in all the time," he said.

"I've got my little breeding horses at Walkabout. I breed them up there, handle them, bring them to the races all the time, every year, all these mob."

Festivities continue after dark

Once the dust settles and the horses have been put away, racegoers flock from the track back to the community.

Later that night, in the dim light of a giant sports hall, hundreds of people from the community, and their visitors, pack in, holding paper plates loaded with potato salad, sausages and steak from the free barbecue outside.

It is time for the community dress up evening, the oft-mentioned, highly anticipated evening tradition, where cowboys, cowgirls, cow-women and cow-men put on their best, dressing up and showing off.

Choosing best dressed is a hard job for this year's judge Sidney Mahinya, an occupational therapy student from the city on placement at the local clinic.

"There was all different types of outfits. We had some whip-cracking, we had some chaps, we had really cool boots and amazing hats and even the belts. It was really cool," she said.

Ms Mahinya has been in the community for two weeks and said residents had been welcoming.

"I would definitely like to come back. I think this community is so beautiful and there's so much to offer," she said.