Thousands of years ago, man discovered that an animal of the order Equus was good at carrying his loads and lightening his load. Then one day, as the human race as a whole are natural competitors, we began to use that animal, called a horse, to compete against others.
Then 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 raising horses for this purpose. Therefore, it was that “class” of people who most often enjoyed the leisure of competing in horse races.
The first pictorial records of horse racing were found in the origins of the prehistoric nomadic tribes of Central Asia. It was they who first domesticated the horse around 4500 BC. The first written records came much later, after horse racing was already an established sport from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. Horse racing became part of the Greek Olympics around 638 BC And the Roman Empire was obsessed with the 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 following years, hundreds of Arabian stallions were crossed with English mares to give the most desirable combination of speed and endurance. This horse breed became known, after its evolution, as Thoroughbred and of course the nobility were leaders in conducting contests between two superior Thoroughbred horses for private bets, as amusement.
As the sport evolved to be more professional during the reign of Queen Anne in the early 18th century, one-on-one racing gave way to events in which multiple horses competed. The racetracks offered purses or cash prizes to the winner of the events. And those wallets 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 standards to be followed by brokers, breeders, and owners. 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 standards of the horses and races that could be run under the Club’s sanction, five races were designated as “classic” races for three-year-olds. The English Triple Crown, which is open to both colts and fillies, consists of the Guineas 2000, the Epsom Derby and the St. Leger Stakes. Two other breeds, which are open only to fillies, are the 1000 Guineas and the Epsom Oaks.
When the British settled in America, they brought excellent breeding animals and racehorses with them. The first known racetrack in the Colonies was on Long Island in New York. It was first designed around 1665. Although horse racing was a popular local event, organized and professional racing did not really begin until after the Civil War. From there, the sport increased 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 best-known horse racing events in the United States, was first held in 1875. It is home to 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, which was first run on Long Island, New York at Jerome Park in 1867, and the Preakness Stakes, which was first run in 1873 at Pimlico Park in Baltimore, Maryland.
Although interest has risen and fallen over the years, horse racing is the second-busiest 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 obstacle course, which requires the horse to overcome obstacles such as bush fences, stone walls, railroad fences and waterfalls. The oldest and most famous obstacle course 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 performed in 1899 at Belmont Park and continues to be held there annually.
– Steeplechase races are similar to steeplechase, but they are much less demanding. It is often used as a training ground for thoroughbreds who will later compete in steeplechase.
– Point-to-point races are generally conducted by amateurs in the British Isles.
– And last but not least, there are sleigh races, which were very popular during the Roman Empire. Once the Empire fell, the sport practically disappeared until its resurrection, by those who liked to run with their horses in harnesses on the rural roads of America, in the late 18th century. The first official harness racing tracks emerged in the early 1800s, and by 1825 harness racing became a favorite attraction at national fairs across the United States.
From the rebirth of sled racing, a new breed of horses was born. In 1788, a prominent English thoroughbred stallion was imported into the United States. He was bred with American thoroughbred and mixed breed mares to establish the Standardbred line. The name is based on the “standard” distance of a mile in harness sprinting speed. The descendants of this line were re-bred over the years to create this new breed that has the stamina, temperament, and physical size and build to withstand racing under the harness.
Although sledding fell out of favor again in the early 1900s, it made a comeback in 1940 after being reintroduced to a New York race track as a mutual betting 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. However, it is still a sport that is often associated with the “rich”, those who can afford the enormous expense of raising the level of the horse required to run and win the big bags awarded by the biggest names. popular horse racing events around the world.
