History of Horse Racing
By Kiawah Smart
Since horses were first domesticated (ca. 4500 BCE), by nomadic Central Asian tribesmen, horse-racing has been a favorite sport of the privileged and leisured. Its origins aren't recorded, but by the time human beings began keeping written records, it was already an established part of civilization and culture from Central Asia to the Mediterranean.
It appears (in the form of chariot racing) in the second-to-last book of Homer's Iliad, which takes place during the Trojan War, possibly referring to events as far back as the twelfth century BCE. We know that chariot races "both two- and four-horses" were also popular events at the ancient Olympics, added to the roster in 680 BCE. (Chariot-less horseback races had been part of the Olympics before that, but were dropped early on.) Chariot racing plays an important role in Roman legend, too. For example, in the story of Romulus's founding of Rome in 753 BCE, the mythical city-founder set up a series of races in order to distract the Sabine men while Romulus and his men, needing women to populate their new city, abducted the Sabine women. With myths like this, it's no wonder that chariot races became a national obsession for many ancient Romans, as popular for them as NASCAR is to contemporary Indianans.
Modern horse racing can be traced back to the twelfth century, when the first wave of battle-weary English knights returned from the Crusades with fast, well-bred Arabian horses. These swift steeds became luxury items for medieval English gentry, who crossbred them with English mares, seeking a marriage between the speed of the Arab horses and the endurance of the English ones. In addition to breeding them, wagering on these horses and matching them against each other gave English nobles an interesting new hobby.
Like all good amateur obsessions, this one was soon professionalized. Under Queen Anne (1702-14), the first modern races, in which spectators bid on races involving several horses, were opened, and racecourses began to appear. The Jockey Club was formed in 1750 to ensure that this lucrative new sport was well-regulated; the organization controls English racing to this day, and the horses listed in its General Stud Book (1791-present) are the only ones acceptable for breeding and Thoroughbred racing. (Modern English Thoroughbreds are thus thoroughly inbred, as all of them can be traced back to one of three stallions: Byerley Turk, 1679; Darley Arabian, 1700; and Godolphin Arabian, 1724.)
Horseracing came to the New World along with British settlement and occupation. In Long Island, the first American racetrack appeared in 1665, and the sport really took off in the decades after the Civil War, as an industrial economy helped provide the urban demographic concentration and pocket money necessary to fuel a large horse-gambling infrastructure. Along with these things came, of course, serious criminal infiltration, which led to the creation of the American Jockey Club, founded in 1894 for the same purpose (and with much the same effect) as the British Jockey Club.
Racing has had its ups and downs in America ever since the wave of antigambling sentiment nearly wiped it out early in the century, but during the 1930s and 1970s champion horses such as Seabiscuit and Secretariat became popular icons, providing a hopeful sidelight in times of national despair and depression. The sport provided a similar service in 2006, when officials reopened New Orleans' Fair Grounds. The third-oldest track in the nation, the Fair Grounds had hosted Thanksgiving races since 1936, until Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. Thousands of Louisianans turned out for the Thanksgiving 2006 races, grateful to participate, once again, in a national tradition.
For those Louisianans, as for so many other Americans, watching thoroughbred horse racing is a wonderful pastime. Whether you're a fan of horse racing gambling or just like the thrill of live horse racing, the sport is full of drama and passion. Tip services can help you maximize your enjoyment of thoroughbred horse racing by clarifying the details and letting you know who the favorites are.
TRP Services offers Thoroughbred horse racing and horse racing tips online for horse racing handicapping and those who love thoroughbred horses for the horse racing tracks.
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