History of Horse Racing
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The competitive racing of horses is one of humankind's most ancient
sports, having its origins among the prehistoric nomadic tribesmen
of Central Asia who first domesticated the horse about 4500 BC.
For thousands of years, horse racing flourished as the sport of
kings and the nobility. Modern racing, however, exists primarily
because it is a major venue for legalized gambling. Horse racing
is the second most widely attended U.S. spectator sport, after baseball.
In 1989, 56,194,565 people attended 8,004 days of racing, wagering
$9.14 billion.
Horse racing is also a major professional sport in Canada, Great
Britain, Ireland, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, and South America. By far the most popular form of the sport
is the racing of mounted THOROUGHBRED horses over flat courses at
distances from three-quarters of a mile to two miles. Other major
forms of horse racing are harness racing, steeplechase racing, and
QUARTER HORSE racing. Thoroughbred Racing By the time humans began
to keep written records, horse racing was an organized sport in
all major civilizations from Central Asia to the Mediterranean.
Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient
Greek Olympics by 638 BC, and the sport became a public obsession
in the Roman Empire.
The origins of modern racing lie in the 12th century, when English
knights returned from the Crusades with swift Arab horses. Over
the next 400 years, an increasing number of Arab stallions were
imported and bred to English mares to produce horses that combined
speed and endurance. Matching the fastest of these animals in two-horse
races for a private wager became a popular diversion of the nobility.
Horse racing began to become a professional sport during the reign
(1702-14) of Queen Anne, when match racing gave way to races involving
several horses on which the spectators wagered. Racecourses sprang
up all over England, offering increasingly large purses to attract
the best horses. These purses in turn made breeding and owning horses
for racing profitable. With the rapid expansion of the sport came
the need for a central governing authority. In 1750 racing's elite
met at Newmarket to form the Jockey Club, which to this day exercises
complete control over English racing.
The Jockey Club wrote complete rules of racing and sanctioned racecourses
to conduct meetings under those rules. Standards defining the quality
of races soon led to the designation of certain races as the ultimate
tests of excellence. Since 1814, five races for three-year-old horses
have been designated as "classics." Three races, open to male horses
(colts) and female horses (fillies), make up the English Triple
Crown: the 2,000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby (see DERBY, THE), and
the St. Leger Stakes. Two races, open to fillies only, are the 1,000
Guineas and the Epsom Oaks. The Jockey Club also took steps to regulate
the breeding of racehorses. James Weatherby, whose family served
as accountants to the members of the Jockey Club, was assigned the
task of tracing the pedigree, or complete family history, of every
horse racing in England. In 1791 the results of his research were
published as the Introduction to the General Stud Book.
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