Sports

Horse racing: the sport of kings

Thousands of years ago, man discovered that an animal of the Equus order was good at carrying his loads and lightening his load. Then one day, as the human race as a whole are natural competitors, we start using that animal, called a horse, to compete against others.

So man began to breed horses to excel in speed and endurance. When this new type of entertainment and sport began to evolve, it was the nobility, or royalty, who could afford the expense of breeding horses for this purpose. Therefore, that “class” of people were the ones who most often enjoyed the leisure of competing in horse races.

The first records of horse racing images were found in the origins of the prehistoric nomadic tribes of Central Asia. It was they who first domesticated the horse around 4500 BC. C. The first written records came much later, after horse racing was already an established sport from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. Horse racing became a part of the Greek Olympic Games around 638 BC. C. And the Roman Empire was obsessed with this sport.

Modern racing has its roots in the 12th century. Knights of the British Empire imported Arabian horses upon their return from the Crusades. In the years that followed, hundreds of Arabian stallions were bred to English mares to give the most desirable combination of speed and endurance. This breed of horse became known, after its evolution, as Thoroughbreds, and of course the nobility was a leader in staging competitions between two superior Thoroughbreds for private betting, as a diversion.

As the sport evolved to become more professional during the reign of Queen Anne in the early 18th century, one-on-one racing gave way to events where multiple horses competed. The racecourses offered purses or cash prizes to the winner of the events. And those bags got bigger to attract the best horses.

In the mid-1700s, it was decided that there needed to be a governing body to determine the rules and regulations that brokers, breeders, and owners had to abide by. As a result, the Jockey Club was established in Newmarket and still exercises complete control over English racing to this day.

Once the Club established the complete rules and regulations of the horses and the breeds that could be managed under the Club’s approval, five breeds were designated as “classic” breeds for three-year-old horses. The English Triple Crown, which is open to both colts and fillies, consists of the 2000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby and the St. Leger Stakes. Two other races, which are open to fillies only, are the 1000 Guineas and the Epsom Oaks.

When the British settled in America, they brought with them excellent breeding animals and racehorses. The first known racetrack in the Colonies was on Long Island in New York. It was first introduced around 1665. Although horse racing was a popular local event, organized and professional racing did not begin until after the Civil War. From there, the sport grew in popularity in populated parts of the country. And many of the racetracks were run by the “criminal element.” As this was quite undesirable for the more prominent track owners and breeders, they met in New York in 1894 and formed the American Jockey Club. They soon established rules and regulations, similar to those of the English Jockey Club, and quickly eliminated much of the corruption.

The Kentucky Derby, one of the most well-known horse racing events in the United States, was first held in 1875. Its home is at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. It is one of the three races that make up the American Triple Crown. The other two are the Belmont Stakes, first held in Long Island, New York at Jerome Park in 1867, and the Preakness Stakes, first held in 1873 at Pimlico Park in Baltimore, Maryland.

Although interest has waxed and waned over the years, horse racing is the second-most-attended spectator sport in the United States, second only to baseball.

There are other forms of horse racing in both Great Britain and the United States. These include:

– The Steeplechase, which requires the horse to overcome obstacles such as bush fences, stone walls, rail fences and waterfalls. The oldest and most famous steeplechase in Great Britain is the Grand National of England. It was first run at Aintree in 1839 and continues to this day. The most famous in the United States is the American National. It was first held in 1899 in Belmont Park and continues to be held there annually.

– The hurdle race is similar to the obstacle course, but it is much less demanding. It is often used as a training ground for Thoroughbreds who will later compete in steeplechase races.

– Point to point racing is usually done by amateurs in the British Isles.

– And last but not least, harness racing, which was very popular during the Roman Empire. Once the Empire fell, the sport all but disappeared until its revival, by those who liked to race their horses in harness on country roads in America, in the late 18th century. The first official tracks for harness racing emerged in the early 1800s, and by 1825, harness racing had become a favorite attraction at country fairs across the US.

From the revival of harness racing, a new breed of horse was born. In 1788, a prominent English Thoroughbred stallion was imported into the United States. He was bred with American Thoroughbred and crossbred mares to establish the Standardbred line. The name is based on the “standard” distance of a mile in harness racing speed. Descendants of this line have been bred again over the years to create this new breed that has the stamina, temperament and physical size and build to withstand racing under harness.

Although harness racing fell out of favor again in the early 20th century, it rebounded in 1940 after being reintroduced at a speedway in New York as a pari-mutuel event. Its number of tracks and scheduled annual events outnumber those of Thoroughbred racing in the United States today. It has also gained popularity in many European countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

What was once almost exclusively “the sport of kings” has evolved over the years to encompass people of all walks of life and income. It remains, however, a sport too often associated with the “haves”, those who can afford the great expense of raising the level of horses needed to race and win the big prizes awarded by the most popular racing events. horses around the world.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *