A horse race is a competitive contest of speed or stamina between one or more horses. Although the sport has undergone many changes since its primitive beginnings, the basic concept remains the same: The horse that crosses the finish line first wins. The modern horse race may be an elaborate spectacle involving large fields, sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment and enormous sums of money, but the essential feature is unchanged.
The horse race has also spawned an array of offshoots, such as thoroughbred breeders, trainers and jockeys. The sport is a major source of employment for people in countries that support it. In addition to jobs related directly to racing, there are hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs – such as those in the food and beverage industry, gambling, marketing and other services for the horse industry.
Despite its popularity and profitability, horse racing has come under increasing scrutiny for its treatment of the animals that participate in it. It is not uncommon for horses to die from catastrophic injuries during races and from exhaustion and overwork in training. Animal welfare advocates claim that horses are routinely drugged with performance-enhancing substances and painkillers — especially sedatives such as furosemide, which is sold under the brand name Lasix — to enable them to cope with the exorbitant physical stress of racing.
The sport also is criticized for its treatment of horses with behavioral problems, including lameness and an inability to stand or graze. Some horses are discarded after a career in racing, and others are sold to slaughterhouses where they are euthanized. The horse racing industry has made some improvements, but critics say it is far from enough.
In the United States, a horse race is run over distances of about two miles (3.2 kilometers). The distance of a race in England varies. For example, the classic Royal Ascot Gold Cup race is run over a 21/2-mile (4-kilometer) course. In some cases, shorter races, known as sprints, are run, while long-distance races, called routes in Britain and staying races in France, are more common.
A horse race begins when the stewards, a group of officials in the paddock where the horses are saddled, inspect the horses and verify their identities. The stewards and patrol judges, who observe the race from vantage points around the track, look for rule violations, and the final results are determined after the race is photographed by a special camera at the finish line.
Some executives and governance observers are uncomfortable with the horse race approach to succession planning, in which several internal candidates compete to become a company’s next CEO. But proponents argue that an overt competition between multiple recognized candidates can be effective in producing a new chief executive, and that the process can reinforce a strong culture of leadership development in a company by encouraging high performers to stretch themselves and take on challenging assignments. In addition, an overt CEO race can show that a board has faith in its management and its leadership development processes.
