Horse Racing

Introduction

 

• Reference Point, with jockey Steve Cauthen in yellow silks, leading the field to win the 1987 Derby …

sport of running horses at speed, mainly Thoroughbreds with a rider astride or Standardbreds with the horse pulling a conveyance with a driver. These two kinds of racing are called racing on the flat and harness racing. Some races on the flat involve jumping. This article is confined to Thoroughbred horse racing on the flat without jumps. For jumping races, see steeplechase, point-to-point, and hurdle races. For racing on the flat with horses other than Thoroughbreds, see quarter-horse racing. See also harness racing.

Although horse racing is one of the oldest of all sports, its basic concept has undergone virtually no change over the centuries. It has developed from a primitive contest of speed or stamina between two horses into a spectacle involving large fields of runners, sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment, and immense sums of money, but its essential feature has always been the same: the horse that finishes first is the winner. In the modern era horse racing developed from a diversion of the leisure class into a huge public-entertainment business. Derby Day at Epsom, England, where the public is admitted onto parts of the grounds at no fee, has drawn as many as 500,000 spectators. Attendance at both flat and harness racing in many countries is the highest or among the highest of all sports.

 

Early history

Knowledge of the first horse race is lost in prehistory. Both four-hitch chariot and mounted (bareback) races were held in the Olympic Games of Greece over the period 700–40 BC. Horse racing, both of chariots and of mounted riders, was a well-organized public entertainment in the Roman Empire. The history of organized racing in other ancient civilizations is not very firmly established. Presumably, organized racing began in such countries as China, Persia, Arabia, and other countries of the Middle East and of North Africa, where horsemanship early became highly developed. Thence came too the Arabian, Barb, and Turk horses that contributed to the earliest European racing. Such horses became familiar to Europeans during the Crusades (11th to 13th century AD), from which they brought those horses back.
Racing in medieval England began when horses for sale were ridden in competition by professional riders to display the horses' speed to buyers. During the reign of Richard the Lion-Heart (1189–99), the first known racing purse was offered, £40, for a race run over a 3-mile (4.8-km) course with knights as riders. In the 16th century Henry VIII imported horses from Italy and Spain (presumably Barbs) and established studs at several locations. In the 17th century James I sponsored meetings in England. His successor, Charles I, had a stud of 139 horses when he died in 1649.

 

Organized racing

Charles II (reigned 1660–85) became known as “the father of the English turf” and inaugurated the King's Plates, races for which prizes were awarded the winners. His articles for these races were the earliest national racing rules. The horses raced were six years old and carried 168 pounds (76 kg), and the winner was the first to win two 4-mile (6.4-km) heats. The patronage of Charles II established Newmarket as the headquarters of English racing.
In North America Richard Nicolls, governor of the colony of New York, in 1665 offered a silver cup, the first known North American racing trophy, to be run for at Hampstead Plain, Long Island. Thus began course racing in North America.
In France the first documented horse race was held in 1651 as the result of a wager between two noblemen. During the reign of Louis XIV (1643–1715), racing based on gambling was prevalent. Louis XVI (reigned 1774–93) organized a jockey club and established rules of racing by royal decree that included requiring certificates of origin for horses and imposing extra weight on foreign horses.