To many of us, the sport of racing horses (as well as the act of betting on that activity) honestly feels like it’s been around forever. It’s a sport that our grandfathers talked about when we were kids, or something we saw mentioned in really, really old movies! Of course, there’s a perfectly good reason for it – horse racing has been around forever, and when I say “forever”, I mean “it’s at least 2000 years old”, which is all kinds of crazy to me. Let’s take a moment to dive in the history of horse racing, following it from antiquity to the present day! Keep in mind, we won’t be diving too deep, or else we’ll be here for an eon, but let’s try and hit all of the important highlights!
The first recorded instances of people betting on horse racing comes from the ancient civilizations of Rome and Greece, which were unhealthily into the sport. They had numerous gigantic stadiums dedicated to chariot racing called hippodromes, which were located all over the ancient world, from Delphi to Aphrodisias. The Colosseum also doubled as a hippodrome, hosting quite a lot of chariot races right in the heart of Rome. And before you ask, yes, people were head over heels in love with gambling on these horses. Gambling, in general, was hugely popular in the ancient world, to the point where both Greeks and Romans had entire festivals dedicated to it. Betting on hippodrome races made a lot of people very rich – mostly the bookmakers, like always.
But hippodrome races always involved chariots, and you may have noticed that, well, there’s a suspicious lack of chariots involved in modern day horse racing. That’s because hippodrome races fell out of popularity as their respective civilizations faded away, and for a while, horse racing remained just a myth. There were certainly instances of horse racing in the next thousand years, but nothing approaching the levels of popularity or cultural relevance that the hippodrome enjoyed… Until our good old friends the Brits showed up in the 12th century, ready to pick up right where the Romans left off. One of the many spoils that British knights returned with from the Crusades were unbelievably fast Arab horses that they then used to breed with British stallions. The resulting breed was known as Thoroughbred, and is still used for racing today. But the part that matters is that many knights secretly used thoroughbred horses for racing, betting between each other on who would be the fastest.
While popular within the inner circle, these races were more of an open secret than anything else – they weren’t open to the public the way knight tournaments were. That changed during the reign of Queen Anne at the dawn of the 18th century, when she – picking up right where her predecessor King Charles left off – began organizing various horse racing events that the commonfolk were allowed to place bets on. It was a cheap way to entertain the masses and keep them happy, which worked so well that in 1750 the Jockey Club was officially established to monitor and govern the races, establishing several rules that still take effect to this day. It really says something about how much the Brits fell in love with horse racing when they’ve had the exact same governing body for it for over 250 years!
But, believe it or not, the Americans love betting on ponies even more. How much more? Well, they constructed their first race track in 1665, way before Queen Anne ever made horse racing a huge public event. Which makes sense, since a lot of the colonists were British citizens who departed around the time when the sport was just starting to pick up steam under King Charles’ rule. On a new land, without any rules or regulations to abide by, the colonists were free to do whatever they wished… And trust me, they did. When the 20th century hit, America had over 300 race tracks all across the continent and an established horse racing industry that was regulated by the American arm of the Jockey Club, established in 1894. Hell, America loved the sport so much that when fixed odds gambling was outlawed in the early 20th century, gamblers immediately turned to parimutuel betting (which wasn’t regulated at the time) just to continue to bet on horses, immediately bringing the whole sport right back around. Not even casinos managed to jump back on their feet so quickly!
Today, horse racing is as popular as it’s ever been. The Triple Crown (a series of three horse racing events) is one of the most popular and prestigious sporting events in the world, and outside of the US, most countries that have legalized gambling also bet on horses. Belgium now sports its own Hippodromes, France has its own major horse racing league, South Africa has adored races since the late 18th century, even Japan – which has traditionally been very opposed to most forms of gambling – has not one, but TWO different horse racing leagues! It just goes to show that, in one way or another, practically every culture across the world and throughout history loves watching horses race. The only thing they love more, of course, is betting on the fastest one.