Horse racing info.?

Question

i am doing this project for school and i need to know some stuff about horse racing. first who started it all and when? also what are the mayjor rules for it? any other info would help out too. thanks!

Answer 1

Horse racing wasn't really started by a single person...  it was more like neighbors making bets that my horse is faster than yours so we'll go out to the street and find out.  or you and your buddy are riding cross country and decide to see who can get to the next tree faster or something like that.  Wikipedia has some info on the subject...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_racin...  There has been horseracing since Roman times (chariot races).

As it stands today, there are many rules in horse racing from breeding and naming the horses to actually running the races.  There are a lot of rules on what your horse can and cannot have in their system during a race (drug tests...  for instance in US, lasix is allowed, but not in some other areas).  All the horses in a race have to carry a specific amount of weight and jockeys have to get weighed before and after a race with all of their equipment to ensure that they weigh the correct amount (and if the horse dumps the jockey and still finishes, it's DQed).  During the race, you're not allowed to interfere with another horse or do anything too dangerous...  you're allowed to do strategy...  you can stay close to the rail to block a horse from coming up beside you and you can go wide through the turn to force the horse outside you to run a farther distance, but you can't use your horse to push another into the rail and you can't cut right in front of another horse when there's not enough room.  you can even go right up behind a horse and start yelling at it to scare it into running faster, but you can't physically touch another horse.  You're allowed to encourage your horse to run faster with the whip, but you're not allowed to excessively whip your horse and you're not allowed to use any electronic shocking devices to force your horse to run faster.  All the horses have to have a clean break...  if the horse isn't given the chance to break with the others, then it can be declared a non-starter, but that's really rare.  There's requirements for when a race is allowed at all...  you can't do any unofficial races where there's betting.  Many races have their own requirements for you to get in like the Kentucky Derby only allows the top 20 money earners and the Breeders Cup chooses the best 14 horses.

good luck on your project!

Answer 2

Although racing has existed in some form or another for thousands of years, horse racing as we know it today was first started during the 1600s by King Charles, here in Newmarket, England.  That is why we are known as Headquarters.  The world's oldest race to be run under Rules is the Newmarket Town Plate, which was first run in about 1667, and is still run to this day.

The Thoroughbred (the breed of horse used for racing) is a man-made breed.  It was created by importing three Arab stallions (The Godolphin Arabian, The Darley Arabian and The Byerley Turk) to England and breeding them with native mares.  Every single Thoroughbred on the planet can trace it's bloodline back to one of these three stallions.

Thoroughbred's born in the Northern Hemisphere all age by 1 year on 1st January, regardless of when they were born.  So if you see a race for two year olds, some will have been born in January and others as late as May.  The breeding season starts on 15th February and stops on 15th July.  This is becasue the gestation period for a horse is about 11 months.  In theory if a mare is covered by a stallion on 15th February, she should not give birth till about 15th January, but as this does not always work out there are two weeks to allow for an early foal.  There have been some cases of foals being born early at Christmas, but unfortunately these foals are unlikely to ever race because within a few days they will "officially" become 1 year old.

When you breed you want to aim for a foal born as early as possible so that it will have a physical advantage over other horses born later the same year.

Racehorses are bred to mature quickly, which is why we can race them at 2 years old.  The 3 year old season is known as the Classic season, and the main aim for a 3 year old is to win one of the Classic races.  In Great Britain our Classics are: 2,000 Guineas, 1,000 Guineas (for fillies only), The Derby, The Oaks (for fillies only) and The St Leger - the world's oldest Classic.  For a colt the aim is to win the 2,000 Guineas (over a mile), The Derby (over a mile and a half) and The St Leger (over a mile and three quarters).  This is known as the Triple Crown.  Af illy will be aimed at the 1,000 Guineas, The Oaks and The St Leger,a lthough she is entitled to run in all 5 races.  The Triple Crown's have not been won for a long time, the last winners being Nijinsky (Colt's Triple Crown in 1970) and Oh So Sharp (Fillies Triple Crown in 1985).

There is also a Triple Crown in America which consists of the Kentucky Derby, The Belmont Stakes and The Preakness Stakes.

There are literally hundreds and thousands of rules for racing, and each set of rules varys from country to country and even state to state.  This link will take you to the Rules of British Racing, it's very, very long but will give you an idea of how complicated it all is:

http://rules.britishhorseracing.com/

I hope that helps you start off for now.  If you have any other questions, let us know.