The equestrian sport of horse
racing was born from unplanned competitions many centuries ago and by
4500 BC, the sport was highly popular among Aristocrats, wealthy
Asians and parts of Europe that it became known as the ‘Sport of
Kings’.
The first notable recognition of
horse racing as a competitive sport was in 648 BC during the annual
Greek Olympics. It proved to be a highly entertaining sport and its
popularity soon spread to other empires and states including that of
the Romans. A few years after horse racing made its debut at the
Greek Olympics, the sport was formatted into forming different types
including mounted racing and chariot racing.
Modern
horse racing
as we know it today emerged during the reign of Queen Anne in England
between 1702 and 1714. It is during this period that the sport became
‘professional’ as a team sport with a clear differentiation of
roles between the jockey and the trainer. It is also during this time
that the first horse racing wagers were placed by ‘male’
aristocrats only.
In 1750, the Jockey Club was
established. Its 3 core primary duties were to formulate the guiding
rules and regulations, regulate horserace breeding and sanction
racecourses. The Jockey Club is still present today and it is still
guided by its founding principles.
Different Forms of Horse Racing
Ever since the first recorded
races, horse racing continued to evolve. The following are the major
changes in the forms of horse racing.
Flat racing -
this is the classic form of horse racing, run on a level racecourse.
Flat racing covers both short races commonly known as ‘sprints’
and long races commonly referred to as ‘staying races or routes’.
Short distances in flat racing on average are 402m or 2 furlongs,
while the long distances on average measure 4,828m or 24 furlongs.
Steeplechase -
this form of horse racing was developed soon after flat racing. In
order to finish, the racehorses have to jump over certain obstacles
in front of them. The obstacles in a steeplechase vary according to
the region, such as in Ireland for instance. Here they prefer smaller
hurdles mostly made of temporarily erected heights while in other
regions like in England, Australia and most parts of the US, the
obstacles are generally permanently fixed fences and ditches.
Steeplechase races, on average, have a distance of 1600m and is
considered the most lucrative horse race, which is easily shown by
the value of the Grand National Run in England with prize money of
£1,000,000 to date.
Harness -
this type of horse racing adopted its style from the traditional
chariot racing and involves a horse pulling a wheeled cart, which is
commonly referred to as a sulky. Harness racing can be conducted in 2
different gaits i.e. pacing and trotting. Pacing is when the sulky
moves its legs laterally. Pacing is mostly used in the US, Canada,
New Zealand and Australia. Trotting, on the other hand, is when the
sulky moves diagonally and is most common in continental Europe.
Unlike in other forms of race horsing, there is no jockey in Harness
racing, but rather a driver.
Endurance -
this is the most recent form of horse racing. It originated during
the First World War and the aim is to test the endurance of the
horse. This race covers a large distance and often it is run in
extreme conditions. The average distance run in an endurance race is
160km. Endurance racing is divided into different sections
(loops/phases/legs) and after each section, the horses pass through a
veterinary check to assess if it’s still fit to continue racing.
Gambling in horse racing in
modern-day land-based establishments started in 1961. Gambling mogul
George Alfred James established the first land-based establishment
allowing horse racing betting in Wales which was named the Port
Talbot Casino Club.
From that time, betting on horse racing gradually began to gather
momentum and it soon became the most popular type of sports betting
on a global scale by the start of the 1980s.
Betting on horse racing, however,
took a sharp turn for the better after the emergence of mobile
technology in particular around 2006. As mobile technology
infiltrated to all the corners of the world, so too did new online
bookies. Online sportsbooks such as Betway,
facilitated by easy-to-use mobile operating systems such as Android
made it easier for punters to bet on the move. This revolution on
mobile betting soon dominated the gambling circles led the gambling
industry to increase its revenue figures exponentially. As early as
2008, after the emergence of mobile technology, global revenue
generated from betting on horse racing was a staggering US$115
billion.
How to bet on horse racing
There are generally two forms
which guide betting on horse racing, one is popular in the US and the
other in all other continents.
The Pari-mutuel is a form of horse
racing bets used in the US, whereby all bets of a particular type are
pooled together and the payout odds are calculated proportionally,
sharing the pool among all the winning bets. Pari-mutuel is also
known as mutual betting or tote betting
in other parts of the world.
In Europe and most other
continents, betting in horse racing is mostly done under betting
markets. The odds are all pre-calculated by bookmakers and all
punters have to do is choose their market of choice and place their
bets. There is a variety of horse racing betting markets terms used
online and at land-based establishments. The 3 common types are the
‘Win or Straight’, ‘Place’ and ‘Show’ markets. Under the
‘Win’ market, punters have to predict the horse that will finish
in the first position. In the ‘Place’ market, punters have to
select a horse that will finish either in the 1st or 2nd position,
while the ‘Show’ market, punters have to select the horse that
will finish in position 1, 2 or 3.