Horse Racing 101

All thoroughbred have the same birthday - January 1st.

The earliest a thoroughbred will race is as a two-year old.

Two-year olds only race other two-year olds.

The Triple Crown is a combination of three races restricted to three-year olds only.

The Triple Crown races are, in order that they occur, The Kentucky Derby, The Preakness Stakes and The Belmont Stakes.

Only 11 horses have ever won the Triple Crown.

It has been 27 years since we have had a Triple Crown winner.

There are many great Thoroughbreds who did not run or did not win any of the Triple Crown races. One you might know is Seabiscuit - as a three year old, he was terrible, as a four year old, he beat his "uncle" - War Admiral, who was a Triple Crown winner.

Two year old racing might be compared to high school athletics.

Three year old racing would be college athletics - the Triple Crown would be like the Olympics (before we let professionals compete).

After the Triple Crown, three year olds begin moving into the professional realm - if they're going to move there - or retire, like Smarty Jones last year.

The "World Series" for Professional Racehorses (post Triple Crown 3-year olds and up) would be the Breeder's Cup, which is run in October.

Horses compete in lesser races as "preps" for the bigger races.

Thoroughbred horses run at around 40 miles an hour - in sprints, faster.

When a jockey uses a whip on the horse, he or she is not beating the horse. Horses are really big animals who live outside in the rain and sleet and hail and sun and wind. They use barbed wire to scratch their itches. When I was a kid, sometimes my horse didn't know I wanted him to go, because he couldn't feel me kick him. (When you ride, you give the horse a little "kick" in the side to ask him to go forward.)

Horse racing is corrupt - because people are involved.

Some of the corruption in horse-racing occurs when trainers give horses drugs, when breeders overbreed and have the less promising horses slaughtered, when jockeys throw races for money, when fans become addicted to gambling.

The NTRA (National Thoroughbred Racing Association) in association with state racing associations requires drug testing for horses - but there are always new ways to cover up drug usage.

The NTRA is against horse slaughter, but has no real teeth to enforce this, as individual breeders do what they want with their horses. (There have been attempts to legislate a shutdown of horse slaughter operations in the United States - they get no press and no support.)

Jockeys can be fined or suspended if it is proven they lost a race on purpose - but, how hard is that to prove?

But in the midst of all of this, there is an athlete who is pure - horses aren't running for money, contracts, world records or greatness.

They run because they love to run.

posted by Headless-in-GR @ 6/16/2005 09:12:00 AM