Horse racing is one of the world’s iconic sports, steeped in tradition and rich with competition, elegance and spectacle. From ancient chariot races to iconic events such as Royal Ascot and Kentucky Derby, this timeless sport offers something for every kind of fan – fashionistas and bettors as well as those simply wanting to feel their earth shake under thundering hooves.
But the reality of horse racing can often be more tragic than expected. Serious injuries abound, from pulmonary hemorrhage (bleeding out of the lungs) and severed spines to broken legs and necks; many horses die of heart attacks or collapsed lungs caused by racing stress, while those that survive may develop degenerative joint changes including bone cysts or condylar fractures which lead to pain and discomfort despite an official testing system that often lacks reliability; many horses also dope despite official testing capabilities that don’t work very reliably – many dopeing systems exist yet still.
As one example, Big Brown, winner of both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2008, boasted in public that he doped his superstar with a legal steroid. Due to lax enforcement measures, it was easy for trainers to move from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and continue using powerful painkillers and anti-inflammatories which may not be banned but can have dangerous side effects; additionally steroids, blood doping drugs and other performance enhancing medication have increasingly replaced vitamins and supplements as performance enhancers.
Racing horse ownership has also grown increasingly complex over the past several decades, shifting dramatically away from sole ownership held by big players towards syndicate ownership of small shares at prices as little as $100 annually – giving rise to microshares offered at less than that amount for “microshare” horse investments – creating an ever more democratic sport attracting working-class audiences with banks of TVs in bowels of tracks showing races from Peru and Argentina.
Media scholars have studied the ramifications of election coverage that depicts campaigns as competitive horse races, with particular attention given to frontrunners and underdogs who are making strides forward. According to recent research, when this happens both voters and candidates lose, as does journalism itself: when reporters focus on who’s ahead or behind instead of discussing issues (known as horse race reporting), voters, candidates, journalism itself all lose. This collection of research explores what consequences horse race reporting has and ways it can be avoided, with contributions on topics from third-party political candidates to probabilistic forecasting.