A horse race is a contest of speed among horses that either are ridden by jockeys or pull sulkies driven by drivers. It is a high-tech sport, where dozens of computers track each horse and the hundreds of cameras zoom in and out, searching for the slightest blip. There are few sports in the world that require such precision. The result is a spectacle that can be both thrilling and awe-inducing, but also incredibly frustrating for the humans who watch.
There are a few places left on Earth where you can see wild horses run free, moving with huge strides and hypnotic smoothness. But in the world of thoroughbred racing, a horse’s ability to win is mostly a human construct, and horses, who are prey animals, prefer not to run as a pack. In the wild, they want to run away from danger, not toward it.
In the earliest days of organized racing, match races were run between two or more horses, with each owner providing a purse, on which bettors placed a wager. The agreement was recorded by a disinterested third party, who came to be known as the keeper of the match book. As the industry developed, these records became more formalized and were published with varying titles. One of these, An Historical List of All Horse-Matches Run, was published in 1729.
After the Civil War, speed became the standard by which American Thoroughbreds were measured, and the emphasis shifted from stamina to winning a single race. But the American system, like the British, was plagued by doping and other illegal activities that damaged the horses and harmed bettors. California banned betting on racing in 1909, not to promote horse welfare but to stamp out the corruption.
The day of the Breeders’ Cup, Santa Anita officials flooded the area with veterinarians and expensive imaging equipment, searching for any preexisting conditions or signs of ill health. The most important thing, they told everyone, was the safety of the equine athletes.
At the walking ring, Mongolian Groom’s coat looked bright enough. But as he approached the starting gate, he balked. A horse who balks, a sign of fear or anger, is not allowed to start the race. But it seemed as though he was just spooked.
Even so, the sport remains riddled with dopers and cheaters. Every racing publication carries ads for supplements and gizmos that are supposed to make a horse go faster. Trainer Bob Baffert, who won this year’s Kentucky Derby on a horse named Medina Spirit, has had thirty-eight horses fail drug tests in his career. He always denies wrongdoing, and the investigations often drag on for months before they reach a conclusion. But the doping problem has made many people wonder if horses are even safe to race on. The answer, according to some experts, may be no.