This
week is the 34rd running of the Breeder’s Cup Championship races. Nothing
beats the excitement, pageantry, and beauty of horseracing. The realm of
horseracing stems from the rough & tumble world of child races in Mongolia,
the country fair circuits, sulky racing with rapid-fire trotters & pacers,
to the high-stakes realm of the modern racetrack. Some places, such as Dubai,
run their meets without any waging allowed just for the love of the sport while
other tracks survive with the assist of casino-style slots on site.
Horse
racing has been around since the first time people hitched horses to a chariot.
The Greeks had horse races as part of the original Olympics. Achilles organized
a series of chariot races as part of the funeral games to honor Petrakos, his
friend (first prize was a pretty woman). The chariot-racing scene was a major
part of Lew Wallace’s classic novel Ben
Hur and a focal point of the Hollywood movie.
Domestic
equines are typed into three classifications: light horses, draft horses, and
ponies. The light horses are further divided into warm bloods and hot bloods.
The warm bloods consist of most riding types of horses. The draft horses are
the heavy horses. Hot bloods are the desertbreds & racehorses: Arabians,
Barbs, and Thoroughbreds. True wild equines are the zebra three species: the Mountain
(Equus Equus zebra), plains (Equus quagga), and Grevy's (Equus grevys);
Przywalski Horse (Taiki); the African Wild Ass (Equinus asinus); the Kiang
(Equus kiang); and, the Onager (Equus hemionus). Knights enjoyed flat racing in
addition to their more violent forms of entertainment.
What
is a pony verses a horse? Both equines are domestic animals but there are a
couple of differences. First, the obvious one: the size. Ponies stand less than
14.2 hands (a hand is equal to four inches) but size itself is it not always
indicative of a horse verses a pony when it comes to classification. Iceland,
Caspian, and Arabian horses can be 14.1 hands. Ponies have shorter legs, a
boxier or squarish body and more overall muscling than a horse. Some ponies
have bigger heads than their horsey cousins. Don’t mistake me: ponies can look refined (as in the Connemara).
The
Thoroughbred racing horse was developed in Great Britain by crossing imported
desert-bred stock on native horses in the sixteenth century. The fastest native
horses were Hobby Horses, particularly Irish Hobby Horses. Hobby Horses were
sprinters. The Irish had been breeding and racing Hobby Horses back to the
sixth century B.C. When the Hobbies and native ponies were mated to the
imported Arabians, Turks, and Barbs, the results became the Thoroughbred.
King
James VI (1566-1625) built a home in Newmarket which had races. The King attended
races at multiple tracks. Charles I (1625-1649) was a fan as well. Racing was
banned when Cromwell headed England but it returned with the restoration of the
Monarchy. Charles II owned and raced horses. It is Queen Anne (1702-1714) who
truly gave horse racing legitimacy. She encouraged breeders to import
bloodstock from Africa, Morocco, Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt. It was
during this time the Darley Arabian stepped onto England. He is one of the
three ‘founding’ sires and the most prominent of the stallions, the other two
being the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerly Turk. Eclipse was a grandson of the
Darley Arabian.
The
Jockey Club was founded in 1750 to register and maintain the purity of the
breed. One of the stated goals was to keep out ponies and weak horses. Stock
was registered, sometimes by the name of the owner which made tracing pedigrees
confusing. The Jockey Club closed its Studbook to non-Thoroughbred in the 19th
century (Lady Anne Wentworth had some of her purebred Arabians in the Studbook
as there was no Arabian registry). The famous Tattersalls was established in
1776 by Richard Tattersall. Steeplechasing was formerly established in 1793 (a
church steeple was the end goal, hence the name).
Formal
horse-racing spread world-wide. Horses became heroes to their countries.
Kincsem, a Hungarian Thoroughbred mare (1874-1887) raced in 54 races and never
lost. Her sire, Cambuscan, was owned by Queen Victoria. After she was retired, Kincsem
had five foals, three of which were champions. Hungary has a dedicated museum
to the great mare at Kincsem Park, with a statue.
New Zealand’s Phar Lap won 37 of 51 races, including the Australia’s marquee races, the Melbourne Cup and the Cox Plate (twice). The chestnut gelding survived being shot at but died mysteriously after running a race at Aqua Caliente. Conspiracy theorists still say the horse was poisoned. Phar Lap’s carcass was taken back to Australia and his skin mounted where it can be seen today at the Melbourne Museum.
US Racing came to the forefront when the Breeder’s Cup Championship Day of Racing started with an idea by a group of breeders in 1982. The first series of races were held in 1984. Runners are nominated as foals, or can earn a place in one of the races by winning a ‘Win and You’re In’ race through-out the year.
Horse
Power
By
Juliet Clutton-Brock
1992
Harvard University Press
ISBN
#0-674-40646-X
Speed
and the Thoroughbred: The Complete History
By
Alexander Mackay-Smith
2000
The Derrydale Press
ISBN
#1-58667-040-9
Stay
safe out there!
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