A horse race is a sport in which horses compete in a contest of speed and stamina, over distances ranging from a few hundred yards to several miles. The game has evolved into a spectacle involving many participants, sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment, and immense sums of money, but its essential feature remains the same: The horse that crosses the finish line first is the winner. Horse racing has a long and rich history, with its origins in ancient races between wild animals and, later, human competitors. Modern horse races are regulated by law and organized into categories based on the horse’s age, sex, and training.
A thoroughbred horse must be in peak condition to perform well in a horse race. It begins training by jogging slowly in the morning, then increasing the pace of its exercise. Once it has built up its conditioning, the trainer may ask the runner to work or breeze. These runs are typically timed and can indicate the runner’s level of fitness and readiness for the competition.
Horses in horse races are assigned a weight, or handicap, to ensure a fair match between the best and weakest horses. A runner’s performance can also be affected by position, sex, jockey, and training. The highest-stakes races, called stakes races, require a higher handicap weight than others. The weights assigned to a runner are determined by the governing body of the sport.
When people use the phrase horse race to refer to a political contest, they are usually referring to the popularity of a candidate rather than the overall quality of the race itself. While some critics argue that news outlets focus too much on pre-election polls and horse race coverage, the freedoms of speech and press give journalists broad leeway in covering elections.
The eleven horses started the race with a clean break from the gate, and War of Will took the early lead on the backstretch. As they reached the clubhouse turn, though, he began to tire, and Mongolian Groom and McKinzie surged past him.
A racehorse’s lower legs take a beating when it’s forced to run at top speed, straining ligaments, tendons, and joints. To help them endure the pounding of a race, most wear hobbles–straps that connect the front and back leg on each side.
Behind the romanticized facade of Thoroughbred horse racing is a world of drugs, injury, and slaughter. Thousands of these creatures are discarded from the track every year, either because they are not competitive enough or because their careers are finished. Despite the industry’s commitment to animal welfare, there is no accurate or transparent lifetime traceability system for racehorses, and it is difficult to know exactly what happens to most of them. Many of these horses are subjected to brutal physical abuse and even electric-shocking devices, in addition to being forced to sprint for extended periods of time. The result is a gruesome breakdown and death for many of them.