by A horse race is a contest of speed and stamina between two or more horses, ridden by jockeys or pulled by sulkies (or both). It can be viewed as a form of equestrian sport. The competition has changed dramatically over the centuries, from a primitive contest to a spectacle involving huge fields of runners and sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment, but it still is fundamentally the same as it ever was: the winner is the horse that crosses the finish line first.
A race can be held over a variety of distances and types of courses, but the most common type is an individual flat race, in which the field of runners is limited by number, sex, age, and track condition. Generally, short races are called sprints, while longer races are known as routes in the United States and staying races in Europe. Races over a mile and a quarter or more, with at least two turns, are referred to as classic distances.
Despite the long history of the sport and its worldwide popularity, many people consider horse racing to be an ugly, cruel business. The practice is widely considered illegal in the United States, though the industry is protected by laws aimed at protecting the welfare of bettors and owners rather than horses themselves. In addition, the industry is plagued with corruption and a high level of illegal gambling. Activists such as Patrick Battuello, who runs the Horseracing Wrongs website, argue that the idea of racing as a sport is an illusion. “These athletes are drugged, whipped, trained and raced too young, pushed to the breaking point and beyond,” he writes. “They spend most of their work lives in solitary confinement.” Among those who survive, PETA estimates that ten thousand American thoroughbreds are slaughtered each year.
In politics, the term horse race is often used to describe a close contest, with the candidates’ chances of winning appearing to be neck-and-neck. Those who support different candidates often have arguments about which candidate is better and what they will do if they win. These debates can be difficult to have because the differences between the candidates are so great.
Some scholars have begun studying the ways that journalists frame elections as a horse race. They have found that newsrooms with a corporate ownership structure are more likely to present polling results in terms of percentage likelihood that a particular candidate will win. This type of framing has the potential to hurt third-party and independent candidates, who may be less visible to the news media and therefore have fewer opportunities to raise their profile through this kind of reporting. However, other scholars have also begun using probabilistic forecasting to examine how this method of analyzing polling data can help improve the accuracy and value of horse race journalism.
