Horse Racing History

Horse racing can be traced back to about 4,500 BC and the nomadic tribesmen of Asia, horseracing was also an olympic sport in 638 BC but when English knights returned from the crusades with Arab horses it was the start of modern day horse racing.

Flatracing

During the reign of Queen Anne horse racing became a professional sport on which spectators gambled and racecourses started up all over England and in 1750 at Newmarket the sports governing body The Jockey Club started up and wrote the rules for horseracing and decided which courses meetings could be held at, they also started the General Stud Book and the Wetherby family were chosen to record the complete family history of every racehorse after which only horses recorded in the General Stud Book could be called Thoroughbreds, all throughbreds can be traced back to one of three stallions, they were the Byerley Turk, foaled 1679; the Darley Arabian, foaled 1700; and the Godolphin Arabian, foaled 1724.

Steeplechases

Steeplechases are races over a 2 to 4 mile course that includes obstacles like brush fences, stone walls, timber rails, and water jumps. The sport developed from the English and Irish pastime of fox hunting, when hunters would test the speed of their mounts during the crosscountry chase.

Organized steeplechase racing began about 1830. The most famous steeplechase race in the world is England's Grand National, held every year since 1839 at Aintree. there are also the Irish Grand National the Scottish Grand National the French Grand National and also the U.S. Grand National which is at Belmont Park.

You can bet on a horse to win (finish first), place (finish first or second), or show (finish first, second, or third). Other popular wagers are the daily double (picking the winners of two consecutive races), exactas (picking the first and second horses in order), quinellas (picking the first and second horses in either order), and the pick six (picking the winners of six consecutive races) and in modern times a lot more complicated betting systems and stratagies exist, some racing terms and bets differ slightly between England and the USA.