Flat Racing
"A race is a Virginian's pleasure,
For which they always can find leisure:
For that, they leave their farm and home,
From ev'ry quarter they can come:
With gentle, simple, rich and poor,
The race-ground soon is cover'd o'er."
—Anne
Riston
Horse-racing has been popular around the
world for many centuries, but since the early 18th century it has developed into
a major sporting industry.
The ancient Chinese, Tartars, Mongols and Greeks all raced
their horses. In modern times, racing as a sport took off with the
development of the Thoroughbred,
which is still the fastest breed in the world. (Actually, I believe that
over short distances, the Quarter
Horse is faster.)
Trivia: The
oldest horse to win a race was 18 year old Revenge, who won at Shrewsbury,
England, in 1790. The fastest horse recorded was
Big Racket, who reached an amazing 43.26 mph in a quarter mile race in Mexico
City on February 5, 1945. The first American-bred and owned racehorse to
win the Grand National was Battleship, son of Man O' War, who won the legendary
race in 1938 while being ridden by a seventeen year old jockey. During
Oliver Cromwell's reign in England (1649-59) horse racing was illegal. The
highest prize money in horse racing in the world is the $2.4 million first prize
for the Dubai World Cup.
Racing was known in Syria and Arabia hundreds of years before Christ.
The early Romans and Greeks became expert horsemen, and chariot racing soon
became a popular, exciting and dangerous sport.
It was the Romans who introduced horse racing to Britain,
although some Germanic tribes had been racing for many centuries. Horse
racing and hunting have been carried on in Britain since the Roman
occupation, with the members of the nobility as the most enthusiastic
participants. These horse sports, however, could not progress beyond the
talents of the horses themselves, and it became a traditional interest of
English monarchs to improve the quality of their stock. But it
was not until the time of James I (1603-25) that public races became established
in England. James promoted
the breeding and training of Eastern-blooded race horses. He
bred Oriental racehorses at Newmarket and introduced his
court to racing.
Charles II,
"Father of the English Turf," revitalized the Royal Stud, set up the
famous race course at New Market, even rode in races himself. He
established regular spring and autumn meetings. In Charles's
25-year reign (1660-85), horse racing as it is known today began to take
form. The one important element still to come was the horse that today
dominates the sport--the Thoroughbred.
Under George I and George
II, horse racing was part of the British way of life, and in 1753 the Jockey
Club was founded.
When
importation of Thoroughbreds
began in America, just after
the Revolution, horse racing was already a popular sport. Match races
between two horses were commonly staged on some suitable town street, or on a
track carved from the surrounding woodland; the quarter-mile sprint was a
popular event. The horses were usually general-purpose animals with
superior speed.
Flat racing, "end-to-end" over an oval track, was
inaugurated in America in 1665, when Richard Nicolls, first English governor of
New York, established a course called Newmarket near what is now Belmont Park on
Long Island. Here the formal racing traditions of the British were
observed, and the horses were probably of the "Dutch" strain imported
from Holland and bred in New England.
In 1730, an outstanding son of the Darley Arabian, Bulle
Rocke, was imported to Virginia. At this time, the Thoroughbred breed was
in its formative period in England. It would be half a century before
Thoroughbreds would arrive in America in any significant number.
Toward the end of the 18th century, some important Thoroughbred
stallions made the voyage to the States. They included
Messenger, root of the Standardbred
harness-racing family and an ancestor of such great runners as the top
money-winner Kelso; also Medley, Shark, and Diomed--all producers of many
illustrious descendants. Diomed's son, Sir Archy, was the first important
American-bred stallion. A match race between such great horses as these
drew enormous crowds in the early days of the Republic. Forty thousand
people thronged to see Sir Henry beat American Eclipse at the Union Race Course
on Long Island in 1823.
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After the Civil War
As a sport, Thoroughbred
racing had come into its own by the 1850's. The
English practice of racing in single dashes had largely replaced the old custom
of deciding a winner on the best of several heats of up to four miles
each. Not only was the older method less exciting, it also made it easier
for a race to be "thrown," since horses had to be held in greater
control to last for such long distances.
The Civil War affected racing and breeding in many
ways. Many fine animals were turned over to the Confederate Army.
Breeding records were lost or destroyed, and many of the major horse-raising
centers of the Southeast became inactive. However, Kentucky's Bluegrass
establishment, around Lexington, survived the conflict and has since led the
country in producing superior Thoroughbreds.
After the Civil War, the South lost its traditional
leadership in the sport of racing. Religious feeling against the morality
of wagering was one cause, the damaged economy of the South was another.
The Northern states moved quickly to the forefront of racing activity, New York
especially. There, in 1864, the Saratoga race course was opened as
Thoroughbred racing's most splendid setting. In the 1860's and 70's new
tracks were opened, including Pimlico in Maryland, the New Orleans Fair Grounds,
and Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. Great horses like
Norfolk, Domino, Ben Brush, and the filly Ruthless, ran for rich purses.
This was the "Golden Age" of Thoroughbred
racing and it lasted to the
end of the century.
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Racing in the 20th Century
As the 1900's arrived, with no strong regulation of racing activity, corrupt
practices had become commonplace. Horses were doped, races were fixed, and
the system of betting was in a state of disorder. A wave of reform
legislation swept the States, with only Maryland and Kentucky remaining friendly
to the sport. These states, home country of the Thoroughbreds, kept racing
alive. At the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in 1908 a machine was used
for the first time which was to make it possible to erase many of the abuses in
trackside betting. The "totalizator" calculated odds
mechanically and made possible the pari-mutuel system, in which odds are
established by the varying amounts of money that bettors put down on each
entry. Mechanical odds-making legitimized betting in the eyes of
lawmakers, and also opened an attractive source of revenue. Racing was
saved, and leaders in the sport moved to make it as honest as possible.
Today it is one of the most closely regulated sports.
Mechanization--from the starting gate to the photo-finish
camera to computerized betting--has made racing more exciting. There are
more than 100 flat-racing tracks operating in the United States and annual
attendance is running close to 50 million. Top events are the three races
for the Triple Crown--the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes, all for
three-year-olds. But the true thrills of racing come from the
great-hearted Thoroughbreds
themselves, and the past decades have produced some
immortal heroes, including Kelso, with winnings of almost $2 million;
Exterminator, victor in 50 of 100 starts; and Man o' War, beaten but once in 21
races. Their will to win will never be forgotten.
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The lean body of the
Thoroughbred, with its extremely long legs, is ideal
for racing. Race horses should be kept on a nervous edge in the hope that
their pent-up energy will be released to its full advantage on the track.
When not racing, or in training, race horses lead a relatively secluded life.
Although race horses do not fold up and take a snooze in the
middle of the track, like the temperamental racing camels of the East, strange
things occur. The Queen Mother's horse was winning the Grand National when
a cramp, or an attempt to jump a shadow, halted it with straddled legs.
Another year a broken rein at a crucial moment sent a likely horse careening off
course. In 1968 Tim Durant, a 68-year-old American, fell off, remounted
and completed the National course. Another National jockey, involved in
the historic pile-up of '67, seized his horse and continued - to discover it was
the wrong animal! Fred Winter rode the immortal Mandarin to victory in a
grueling French steeplechase, minus the bridle - which broke half-way around the
course.
Today racing is big business - both in the gambling and the
interdependent and highly profitable breeding of blood-stock.
Point-to-point racing is financially the life-blood of most
hunts, and until recent years was the province of the authentic hunter, rather
than the blood race horses of today.
Whenever the Thoroughbred
is raced, its jockey wears the
"silks" of the horse's owner--a blouse and cap in a combination of
pattern and colors belonging exclusively to that owner.
In style of riding, America has contributed to the speed of the Thoroughbred.
About 1900, Jockey Tod Sloan made a daring experiment. He shortened his
stirrups, moved up from his horse's back, and crouched like a lightning but on
his neck. Here he was so close to the horse's ears he could whisper him
home, without whip or spur. Soon all of America's jockeys were riding
high, like monkeys on a stick, and their horses were making better time.
This bug-boy crouch not only means more speed but it saves a
horse's back, his weak spot. This is important, as many race horses are
ridden before they are two years old. Maybe they are not even two, for all
Thoroughbreds
are given
the same birthday, January first. Thus a foal born in April has his first
birthday the following New Year's Day, when he is really only eight months old.