Horse racing is one of the world’s most popular sports. It is a sport in which a jockey mounts a horse and attempts to win a race by being the first one to cross the finish line. It is also a popular form of gambling where participants place bets on the outcome of a race. Bets can be placed on individual horses or accumulator bets.
The sport of horse races has a long history. Some of the earliest recorded accounts date back to ancient Greece. It is believed that the Greeks began to use horses for racing in 700 to 40 B.C. In the centuries that followed, the sport continued to develop and was introduced to other parts of the world.
In the United States, horse races are regulated by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA). The NTRA provides oversight for the breeding and training of horses used in racing and monitors the safety of racetracks. The association also regulates betting and oversees the distribution of prize money. In addition, the NTRA works to promote and improve the quality of racetracks.
A horse must have a pedigree to be eligible to race. Its father and mother must be purebred members of the breed it will compete in, such as a Standardbred or thoroughbred. Pedigrees are often used to determine the chance a horse will win a race. The more purebred a horse is, the higher its chances are of winning a race.
There are essentially three types of people in horse racing: cheaters, dupes, and the honorable masses in the middle. The first category are the crooks who dangerously drug and otherwise abuse their horses, counting on the dupes to continue the illusion that racing is generally honest and fair. The last group is the all-too-silent majority of horsemen and women who know that the industry is more crooked than it ought to be, but do not give their full effort to reforming it.
Despite these efforts, the fact remains that horse racing is a brutal and violent enterprise. It is a sport that takes its athletes, who are mostly still in adolescence, and forces them to run at breakneck speed. They are subjected to repeated and intense whipping, and, despite their best efforts to stay alive, they are often injured or killed. Those who are not killed at the track will be sent to slaughterhouses, where many, according to PETA, will die a horrific death. The Atlantic reveals the shocking truth about horse racing with this video that documents the cruel training methods of two top trainers at Churchill Downs and Saratoga in upstate New York. The story has garnered international attention, and has led to calls for major reforms in horse racing.