Horse racing is an ancient sport. Its origins date back to about 4500 BC among the Central Asian nomadic tribesmen.Since that time, horse racing has flourished as the sport of kings. In this modern time, horse race betting is one of the few forms of gambling that is legal throughout most of the countries around the globe. Horse racing classically involves two or more horses ridden by jockeys or driven over a set distance for competition. As it is one of the most ancient sports its basic premise is to identify which of two or more horses is the fastest over a distance or a set course. It has remained unchanged since the earliest times.
Horse races differ widely in format. Frequently, different countries have developed their own horse racing traditions. The variations include restricting races to particular breeds, running over different distances, running on different track surfaces, running over obstacles and running in different gaits.
While horses are at times raced purely for sport, a major part of horse racing’s interest and economic importance lies in the horse race betting associated with the game,an activity held in earlier 2008 generated a worldwide market worth around 115 billion US dollars.
In later times, horse racing turned out to be, and remains, popular amongst the royalty of British and the aristocratâs society, earning it the title of sport of Kings.
Historically, horse racing since the beginning of the time was an organized sport for all the major civilizations around the world. The ancient Greek Olympics had events for both mounted horse racing and chariot. This sport was also quite popular in the Roman Empire.
The origins of modern racing lie in the beginning of the 12th century, when the English knights returned from the Crusades with the swift Arab horses. During the next four centuries, a growing number of Arab stallions were imported and breaded to English mares in order to produce horses that possessed both endurance and speed. The nobility would gamble privately on match races amongst the fastest of these horses.
During the reign of Queen Anne from 1702 to 1714, horse racing began to develop into a professional sport. Match racing advanced into multi-horse races on which the spectators gambled. Racecourses emerged all over the England, offering ever more large purses to attract the best horses. The purses made owning and breeding horses for racing more profitable. Thus the rapid expansion of the sport created the need for a central governing ability. In 1750 racing’s elite met at new market to form the Jockey Club. This organization still standardize English racing till time.
Talking about the tournaments of todayâs era, the Grand National is considered as the worldâs most famous horse race. It takes place in April every year and is an extremely tough race, run over 4 miles and features some disreputably high fences such as the Chair and Becherâs Brook. There is usually a field of 40 riders and runners. The Grand National is reported to be watched by more than 600 million people across the world, and is regarded as one of the Latest Grand National Free Bets events.
