A horse race is an event that involves several horses ridden by jockeys or hitched to chariots and driven by drivers. The sport has entranced spectators for centuries and continues to be a popular form of entertainment today. A day at the races can include everything from wagering on the favorite to enjoying a wide array of food and drink.
The most famous horse races have become spectacles involving enormous fields of runners and sophisticated electronic monitoring equipment, but their basic concept has not changed significantly over the centuries. Two or more horses compete in a contest of speed or endurance to determine the winner, and winning is rewarded with a purse of cash or prizes. The competition is often very close, with only a few seconds or even less separating the top contenders.
Racing has been around for hundreds of years and has been a major source of income for many civilizations, including Ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, Babylonia, and Syria. The sport has evolved from a diversion of the leisure class into a global public-entertainment business, but its popularity is declining. In recent years, growing awareness of the dark side of the industry has spurred some improvements in equine welfare, but the problem is far from resolved.
Although running fast comes naturally to Thoroughbreds, they must be trained to outrun their opponents in order to win. The sport requires a high level of skill, and even the best jockeys must often use their whip to encourage a horse to continue pushing when it is tired. The consequences of this stress are deadly; one study found that three thoroughbreds die every day in North America from injuries suffered during racing.
In the wild, horses synchronize their running in groups and protect each other. They do not want to win, but they do enjoy running and moving quickly. It is not fair to compare this natural behavior to the artificial sport of horse racing, where winning means subjecting the animals to exorbitant physical stress and risk of death or injury.
As the 2016 presidential election draws to a close, it has begun to feel more and more like a horse race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Both candidates are trying to sway voters in key swing states with the promise of tax cuts and other policies that will appeal to voters who are still undecided. But a horse race is not a substitute for an in-depth discussion of important issues facing the country and the world.
A classic succession “horse race” pits a number of senior executives in an overt competition to be the next CEO. While the approach can help companies choose a well-qualified leader, some boards and executive search firms are increasingly uncomfortable with this model because it is too reliant on a short-term, self-serving process. Instead, they prefer a long-term leadership pipeline that includes a variety of critical roles through which executives develop the competencies and seasoning necessary to succeed as CEO.