The horse race is one of the world’s oldest sports and its basic concept has changed little over the centuries. While the sport has evolved from a primitive contest of speed or stamina between two horses into a spectacle that includes large fields of runners, sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment, and immense sums of money, it remains essentially a competition in which the horse that crosses the finish line first wins.
As a result of pressure by the public, races were gradually expanded from match contests between just two, or at most three, horses to events with larger fields of runners. In some races, even as many as 10 or more horses run together in one heat. The early races were 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) heats, in which a win required winning both of two heats. As dash, or one-heat racing became the rule, a rider’s skill and judgment in coaxing a few feet of advantage from his mount became vital to winning.
Modern thoroughbred racing traces its roots to ancient Greece, where the Olympic Games included both four-hitched chariot races and mounted bareback races. Bareback horse races were also popular in Asia, and in the Middle East.
The sport was brought to America in the 17th century, and by the end of Louis XIV’s reign in France, racing had become a huge business based on gambling. Louis established rules by royal decree that included requiring certificates of origin for horses and imposing extra weight on foreign-bred runners.
Today, a major concern in horse racing is the high rate of injuries and deaths among racehorses. The sport is rife with drug abuse and other forms of corruption, and many horses are broken down in training or otherwise injured. Some are transported to slaughterhouses, where they are killed for food. Growing awareness of the dark side of racing has fueled some improvements, but serious reform is needed if it is to succeed.
The earliest written manuals on the care, training, and feeding of horses date from about 1500 bc in Asia Minor. Homer’s Iliad contains a full description of a chariot race, and there are references to chariot and bareback horse races at the Olympic Games from the 9th or 8th century bc.
A horse race starts in a paddock, where riders, or jockeys, saddle their mounts and parade them past the stewards for inspection. The horses then enter the starting gate, or gate, and are urged to begin running. Riders must stay on their mounts, directing them to follow the course and jump hurdles (if present), as they race toward the finish line.
Some of the most famous races in the world are prestigious “races for older” Thoroughbreds. These are races that admit horses over the age of three years old, and include such classics as the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France, the Melbourne Cup in Australia, the Caulfield Cup in Australia, and the Sydney Cup in Brazil. Some of these races offer a substantial prize to the winner, as well as a place in the history books.