Horse Racing – A Spectator’s Spectator
Horse races have been held since ancient times as a contest of speed or stamina between two horses. The sport has evolved over the centuries into a spectacle with vast fields of runners, sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment, and huge sums of money, but its essential concept remains the same: the horse that crosses the finish line first is the winner.
The most prestigious flat races are run over distances from three to five furlongs (two to four miles), and are seen as tests of both speed and stamina. The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Caulfield and Melbourne Cups in Australia, Japan Cup in Tokyo, and Epsom Derby in England are all races of this type.
In addition to betting on the outcome of a race, fans can also bet on how many places a horse will win or finish in, known as placing. This practice is more common in Europe, where a number of tracks offer both single and accumulator bets. Regardless of the amount of money placed on a specific result, a significant portion of racegoers attend races for the sole purpose of spectating.
Despite the popularity of the sport, horse racing is plagued by problems that threaten its very existence. As the world becomes more aware of the inhumane treatment of animals, there is a growing demand for horse races to adapt its business model so that the interests of the horses are given priority over those of the owners and gamblers.
While the sport has made advances in technology to monitor the safety of the horses, including thermal imaging cameras to detect overheating post-race and MRI scanners, these innovations are only part of the solution. The most significant change required is for the industry to acknowledge that its business model has failed and to implement reforms that will ensure equine welfare is put before profit.
The latest horse racing controversy has sparked a storm of criticism from animal activists, who say that top trainer Steve Asmussen and his assistant Scott Blasi have abused the horses in their care. Those accusations are based on an undercover video that was recently published in The New York Times.
While some in the racing industry argue that the video was tainted by how it was obtained, virtually no one outside of the sport cares how the activists get other undercover footage of alleged animal abuse. Instead, they care about what is in the video and what it reveals about how the sport treats its prized animals.
