Equestrian performance sports are those sports which involve horse riding – basically, horse racing. Horse racing is a very ancient sport – it dates back to the days of Classical Greece – and it hasn’t changed much over the course of more than two millenniums. In this sport, there are basically two or more horses, and their counterpart jockeys (i.e. the horse riders), who compete over a set distance.
Horse racing (and all related gambling) has been popular in the United Kingdom since ancient times, and continues to be so. In fact, it is thanks to this popularity that was present even during colonial times that horse racing has become a globally popular sport – the British, during the imperialist years (i.e. during the 17th to mid-20th centuries) introduced the sport to many of its colonies, some of them being Australia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and India.
While horse racing usually differs slightly from country to country nowadays, we can identify four main categories of horse racing, them namely being:• Flat racing – an oval or straight track without obstacles is provided as the race course• Jump racing – also known as Jumps racing or Steeplechasing (called National Hunt Racing in the United Kingdom), this type of horse racing involves the horses racing each other on a track which features a series of obstacles• Harness racing – here, the horses have to pull along a two-wheeled light vehicle (on which is the driver), called a ‘sulky’• Endurance racing – in endurance racing, the horses have to race over extreme distances (i.e. basically, a marathon), which are usually around 50 to 150 kilometres
While horse racing is thus a well-defined sport with many categories as shown above, a good part of the revenues from horse racing are not generated from business activities directly related to the sport itself – but, mainly derive from betting. Placing horse racing bets is arguably one of the most popular forms of gambling. Basing themselves on free horse racing tips, individuals can place bets on favourites to win the respective horse races, and given that these racing tips are from reliable free systems, it is possible to win even large amounts of cash.
There are of course certain horse races that completely prohibit any form of gambling. These races forbid gambling stations – that is, where gamblers place their bets on horses – from their tracks. One such prominent example is the Springdale Race Course of South Carolina, where gambling is outlawed thanks to a law passed in 1951. Despite this, the truth is that the majority of all horse racing gambling do not outlaw gambling, and therefore, it takes up a major portion of all revenues generated from horse racing today.