Horse racing should no longer be called a sport
Roar Pro 
Horse Efficient and jockey Michael Rodd win the 2007 Melbourne Cup- AAP Image/Julian Smith
Strictly speaking this headline is dead wrong. We have a physical activity that is engaged in at a competitive level with a set of fairly clear rules and guidelines.
However it doesn’t take much digging and even less thinking to analyse what really makes this sport tick and how it manages to keep afloat and stay relevant.
Breeding horses for racing is a prohibitively expensive business.
Absolutely nothing about them is cheap: from vet bills, stabling, land, transport, training, and son on. How do the great majority of horses who continually fail to perform in the smaller meets continue to turn up throughout the year and effectively prop up the racing system?
Every sport needs its proletariat (or horse equivalent, if you will) of losers. But how do those involved afford to lose so consistently and expensively?
At the lower level of the industry, wins are shared around to ensure an even dip into the prize pool and to guarantee all involved can afford to remain involved and lend an air of legitimacy to those in the winners circle.
Higher up the wheat tends to get separated from the chaff and the better horses will take home the prize more often than not. Higher up also, the astronomical running costs are often deferred by group ownership.
But then we have to look at the influence of the betting agencies and the inextricable relationship they have with the sport.
I think it would be fair to say that horse racing is merely a facade for the gambling industry, their prime shop window. Any other sport which pledged such a complex and symbiotic relationship with the Paddy Powers of this world would be shut down and audited instantly.
But not racing.
Because it’s not a sport. It is a machine designed to facilitate socially acceptable gambling. Neither can live without the other.
As long as we’re all clear on that, then it’s okay, but please stop trying to sell it as a fully legitimate sport replete with equity, honour and athletic endeavour.
Yes, jockeys need to be superfit and disciplined, but that’s one component of a many-headed Hydra, the rest of which they have zero control over.
In a way, I feel like the guy who tells the kids Santa isn’t real. But then most kids already know when the news finally breaks anyway.
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October 20th 2009 @ 4:01pm
Justin said | October 20th 2009 @ 4:01pm | Report comment
The breeders are the ones who make all the money but unfortunately it seems they are exempt from actually putting money back into racing. They just deride corporate bookies and betfair without kicking in a brass razoo…
October 20th 2009 @ 4:32pm
netrug said | October 20th 2009 @ 4:32pm | Report comment
I think it is common knowledge that horse racing without the gambling would cease to exist.
What does annoy me is that the powers that be try to dicguise it. You will notice the the “bl” has disappeared from the word gambling and it is all now called “gaming”. This is nothing but trying to be “politically correct” and the sugarcoat the industry. It is not a game, it is gambling.
October 20th 2009 @ 4:43pm
MyGeneration said | October 20th 2009 @ 4:43pm | Report comment
Gaming is a common term using for all kinds of gambling, not necessarily horse racing, which is usually referred to as punting. Gaming is a term employed by government bureaucrats, I believe, to look better on government reports (as it is governments, ie. taxpayers, that end up with a certain percentage of the profits). I don’t think the horse racing industry sees being associated with gambling as a problem, or something that needs to be sugarcoated.
October 21st 2009 @ 9:40am
netrug said | October 21st 2009 @ 9:40am | Report comment
Nevertheless, the use of gaming instead of gambling is nothing more than a euphemism to soften the correct word.
Ithe word is used because the spin doctors have deemed that it be so. Just another example of word meaning manipulation. Gambling is not a game.
October 21st 2009 @ 11:58am
MyGeneration said | October 21st 2009 @ 11:58am | Report comment
I strongly disagree with your definition of a game. Where did you get it from? My view would be that not all games are gambling, but gambling is always a game. It has arbitrary rules and a quantifiable outcome, which is close enough to the definition of a game for me.
October 21st 2009 @ 10:27pm
netrug said | October 21st 2009 @ 10:27pm | Report comment
The Oxford dictionary definition of “game” is, diversion, pastime, jrst, contest for amusement, scheme and plan of action. I would say gambling is taken much more seriously than that.
October 20th 2009 @ 6:08pm
bever fever said | October 20th 2009 @ 6:08pm | Report comment
Love having a beer and a bet, of course the racing industry survives because of gambling, didn’t think it was a state secret, so does the stockmarket BTW.
Personally i liked it better when we had SP bookies down at the local rather than the TAB, they are continually ripping us off, everytime i back a winner supertab seems to be the worse dividend out of the 3.
I dont really get this article, talk about stating the obvious.
October 21st 2009 @ 3:46am
alejo said | October 21st 2009 @ 3:46am | Report comment
football and espn are as popular as they are because of the millions bet on them every weekend.
October 21st 2009 @ 8:12am
MattRusty said | October 21st 2009 @ 8:12am | Report comment
Sheek and bever fever, you don’t understand the stock-market if you think it survives based on betting. Betting is a zero sum game, you win or you lose. If you invest in shares in a company and hold them, you receive dividends each year, and over time you earn capital gains by it going up. The stock-market transfers wealth from impatient people (speculators who think they can predict the future) to patient people (investors who understand that we live in a capitalist market and capital markets increase over time). The Australian stock-market has returned a compound return of 11%pa over the past 25 years; you don’t get that level return each week, month or year; sometimes it’s far less (like last year) and sometimes it’s far more (like this year), but it’s there.
Gambling on the other hand is, as it’s often quoted, a tax on the poor. It sounds like most people on this blog see racing as entertainment, not a way to make money which is a great thing. But it’s still a fair debate to have to question the motives behind the sport – it’s driven by money, so is it really a sport?
October 21st 2009 @ 10:56am
MyGeneration said | October 21st 2009 @ 10:56am | Report comment
Fair enough, as long as we can include all professional sports in that debate.
October 21st 2009 @ 12:43pm
bever fever said | October 21st 2009 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
Dont want to sound rude, but do you mind listing some things that are not really driven by money.
The stockmarket is driven by greed and fear. The racing industry is driven by money.
By the way tell all the older baby boomers who lost thousands of dollars recently through their super funds that the stockmarket transfers money from impatient to patient.
Fair enough that you dont like gambling, i do, but i am realistic enough to see it for what it is and has always been.
Money drives everything, gambling on horses is just another way of moving it around.
October 21st 2009 @ 1:59pm
MattRusty said | October 21st 2009 @ 1:59pm | Report comment
Amateur sport isn’t driven by money. Parents aren’t driven by money, do you know how much kids cost to raise? Don’t think love is driven by money…
The stock-market is driven by capitalism. Baby boomers that had most of their portfolio invested in the Australian stock-market and lost 40% of their capital didn’t understand risk. Investment markets hand out very expensive tuition bills to those who don’t know what they are doing, and yes, many Baby boomers earned a diploma in this recently. Share-market is up over 40% over the last six months. The patient ones have had this wealth transferred back to them. The impatient ones went back to the sidelines and missed out again.
October 21st 2009 @ 2:56pm
bever fever said | October 21st 2009 @ 2:56pm | Report comment
I have 4 children so i have a fair idea how much it costs to raise them.
Is not capitalism another name for money and greed.
I know plenty of parents driven to make money out of love for their kids to give them good educations or put on a extension etc.
Amatuer sport is driven by money to an extent, amatuer football is about going up through the grades by providing better facilities to get the better players etc.
This costs money.
October 21st 2009 @ 5:18pm
Dave1 said | October 21st 2009 @ 5:18pm | Report comment
capitalism is another word for trading in a market
November 3rd 2009 @ 6:06pm
Dave1 said | November 3rd 2009 @ 6:06pm | Report comment
Life insurance is a good comparison. The actuaries in a life Insurance company work on the same line as book makers in sports betting do.
October 21st 2009 @ 3:19pm
Ian Whitchurch said | October 21st 2009 @ 3:19pm | Report comment
The very best and fastest horses gallop really fast around a paddock because they want to.
Some of them gallop really fast because they are being hit.
Some of them gallop really fast because they are wired to the gills.
But the best and fastest horses gallop really fast around a paddock because they want to.
And the rest of us are spectators to the desire of a given horse to run faster than the rest of the mob.
And that is what we see, and that is what we feel, and that is what we will remember to the end of our days
October 22nd 2009 @ 12:45am
Guy Smiley said | October 22nd 2009 @ 12:45am | Report comment
Some interesting thoughts going on here but a few clarifications required. Several contributors above state that I am merely stating the obvious. To well-read, learned people (like those above) this is true. But the majority of followers, whether deliberately or involuntarily, decide to ignore these truths and would claim that horse racing is indeed a fine sport. I disagree.
Also, yes, other sports have links to the gambling industry, they all do to differing degrees, but it’s these degrees that got me started. No other legitimate sport comes even close to horse racing. Bookies and racing folk are like the pigs and humans at the end of Animal Farm. Journalistic hyberbole but you get the point.
And for the record, the term gambling is loaded with negative connotations, the main culprit being ‘addiction’. Gaming is a far safer term but it means the same thing in my book.
October 22nd 2009 @ 11:47am
Knuckles said | October 22nd 2009 @ 11:47am | Report comment
MMM too much time up your sleeves boys.
You both have very good journailist skills, many sites online would pay you for that type and amount of content.
Just have something each way on Scenic Blast, in the cox plate on saturday and buy each other a beer.
Cheers lol
October 22nd 2009 @ 12:26pm
MattRusty said | October 22nd 2009 @ 12:26pm | Report comment
You must have time up your sleeves too Knuckles if you just read through all that…
October 22nd 2009 @ 6:53pm
MyGeneration said | October 22nd 2009 @ 6:53pm | Report comment
Would want pretty big odds there, Knuckles, as it’s a sprinter and not entered! I think you mean Scenic Shot. May or may not take your advice on the bet (is that each-way enough?), but definitely happy to take your advice on the beer
Cheers!
October 23rd 2009 @ 11:59am
macavity said | October 23rd 2009 @ 11:59am | Report comment
here would be an interesting experiment.
run a meet with no gambling and no booze.
see how many turn up.
October 23rd 2009 @ 1:49pm
MyGeneration said | October 23rd 2009 @ 1:49pm | Report comment
I think they’ve been doing it in Muslim countries for centuries. Horse racing wasn’t invented yesterday by the TAB. It’s one of the oldest sports on the planet.
October 23rd 2009 @ 2:42pm
macavity said | October 23rd 2009 @ 2:42pm | Report comment
All well and good for Muslim countries – horses are also a huge part of Arabian culture. I would still contend that a hell of a lot of off-track betting is going on under tables.
Lets see whether horses, or alternatively drinking and gambling, are the attraction in Oz.
I am quietly confident it isnt the horses that gets the punters through the gates.
October 23rd 2009 @ 2:58pm
MyGeneration said | October 23rd 2009 @ 2:58pm | Report comment
Cricket’s development as an organised sport in the 17th and 18th centuries was primarily based on gambling. Most sports that don’t have betting as a centrepiece would involve under the table gambling somewhere. Our biggest sports are heavily sponsored by alcohol companies. No-one is arguing that horse-racing in this country isn’t based around gambling and drinking is a big part of how the carnivals are promoted, if not the week-to-week racing throughout the year, but it’s certainly not alone in that respect. I’m still not sure what your point is, macavity.