What horse could possibly beat a thoroughbred in a race?

Question

Okay some peaple besides me should know this.

Answer 1

Over a quarter mile, the Quarter Horse would win.  They break from the gate with incredible speed and sprint to the finish.  In a thoroughbred race, the horses take it easy when they break from the gate...  the jockeys let the horses break, run a few strides, and then start worrying about actually racing.  Quarter Horses are the fastest horse over a quarter mile...  they got their name from the olden days when people would race down the main street in their city which tended to be about a quarter mile long...  that's when people discovered that quarter horses won those races and that's when the American Quarter Horse was given its name.

TBs are bred for speed over a longer distance than the QH.  But I believe in an endurance race, the Arabian would win.  They're bred to keep running for days while TBs are bred to run really fast for a couple minutes, then take some time off before their next race or even before their next workout.  There might be some other breeds that could win the race too...  if you're familiar with the move Hidalgo, it's based on a true story of a Mustang who won endurance races against the Arabians.

Given the right horses, I believe that you could get any breed to beat any other breed in any race.  I mean if you take a slow TB and match it with a QH who likes to run for a longer distance and you train the QH for the race, I think it could win over a longer distance than the quarter mile.  And you might be able to find a TB who can beat a slower QH to the finish of a short race.  And I think you could take any breed and get them to win in a race if you train correctly and choose your competition correctly.  That means that the TB isn't necessarily going to win every race against another breed, but it also doesn't mean that the other breed is a better racer than the TB.

Incidentally, Secretariat might be able to beat a QH over a quarter mile IF Secretariat got to run a longer distance and only the final quarter mile mattered.  Breaking from the gate, Secretariat was always slow.  He made up for it later in the race.  Secretariat would always lean against the back of the starting gate, so his first strides weren't his best.  In an ordinary QH race, Secretariat would be left three strides behind the other horses at the break.  In the ordinary QH race, even losing one stride is often fatal.  Over a quarter mile, I'd have to say that Ruffian would beat Secretariat...  she broke and went to the lead in every race without the jockey asking for anything.  If I had to choose a TB to race the QHs, I'd choose Ruffian over Secretariat.

Answer 2

An Arabian simply does not run fast enough to beat a thoroughbred over any distance of ground, judging from the races I have seen involving Arabians. A good quarter horse may be able to beat a thoroughbred at a quarter mile although I know that there are sprinters out there who can run every bit as fast as a quarter horse over the distance.

Answer 3

It's got to be an Arabian :-)

Answer 4

It depends on the distance of the race. If we are talking about a race that is the distance of the Kentucky Derby, then there isn't really another horse that can beat a thoroughbred at that distance. It's what they are bred for.

However, at a shorter distance of maybe less than a mile, the American Quarter Horse would beat a thoroughbred. Quarter Horses got their name by being extremely fast over short distances. Thoroughbreds take a bit of time to get their speed up, and they can endure longer distances with their speed.

The only exception to that statement would have been a Triple Crown winner by the name of Secretariat. He was a unique Thoroughbred racer that had incredible speed at the start, and he could maintain it throughout the race, often beating the other horses in the race by 10 lengths or more. His most famous race was the Belmont win that completed the Triple Crown, in which he out-distanced the rest of the field by an amazing 31 lengths.