History of Horse Race Betting

By the time humans began to preserve written records, horse racing was an organized sport in all major societies from Central Asia to the Mediterranean. Both chariot and riding horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 638 BC, and the sport developed to be a public fascination in the Roman Empire.

The origins of modern racing started in the 12th century, when English knights returned from the Crusades with swift Arab horses. Over the following 400 years, a growing number of Arab stallions were imported and bred to English mares to produce horses that combined speed and durability. Matching the fastest of these animals in two-horse races for a private wager became a popular diversion of the nobility.

Horse racing began to become a professional sport during the reign (1702) of Queen Anne, when match racing gave way to races including several horses on which the audiences betted. Racetracks arose all over England, offering progressively large purses to attract the best horses. These purses in turn made breeding and owning horses for racing lucrative. With the quick growth of the sport came the need for a central governing authority. In 1750 racing's elite met at Newmarket to form the Jockey Club, which to this day exercises comprehensive control over English racing.

The Jockey Club wrote comprehensive rules of competing and sanctioned racecourses to conduct meetings under those rules. Standards defining the quality of races soon led to the designation of certain races as the ultimate tests of excellence. Since 1814, five races for three-year-old horses have been labeled as "classics." Three races open to male horses and female horses make up the English Triple Crown: the 2,000 Guineas, the Epsom Derby, and the St. Leger Stakes. Two races, open to fillies only, are the 1,000 Guineas and the Epsom Oaks.

The British settlers brought horses and horse racing with them to the New World, with the first racetrack built on Long Island as early as 1665. In 1894 the country's most prominent track and stable owners met in New York to form an American Jockey Club.

In the early 1900s competing in the United States was almost wiped out by antigambling sentiment that controlled nearly all states to prohibit bookmaking. By 1908 the number of tracks had plummeted to just 25. That same year, the introduction of pari-mutuel betting for the Kentucky Derby gestured a turnaround for the sport. More racetracks opened as many state legislatures approved to legalize pari-mutuel betting in exchange for a share of the money wagered. At the end of World War I, prosperity and great horses brought spectators flocking to racetracks. The sport prospered until World War II, declined in popularity during the 1950s and 1960s, then enjoyed a resurgence in the 1970s triggered by the immense popularity of great horses such as Secretariat, winner of the American Triple Crown--the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. During the late 1980s, another significant decline occurred.

Public interest in the sport focuses primarily on major Thoroughbred races such as the American Triple Crown and the Breeder's Cup races (begun in 1984). State racing commissions have sole authority to approve participants and grant racing dates, while sharing the appointment of racing officials and the supervision of racing rules with the Jockey Club. The Jockey Club retains authority over the breeding of Thoroughbreds.

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