Once Upon a Time...
Horse racing is one of the oldest known sports and can be traced all the way back to the nomadic tribes of Central Asia. As a professional sport it can be traced back to the UK in the twelfth Century, after English knights bought back Arabian horses after the Crusades. These Arabian horses were bred with the English horses to produce the
Thoroughbreds we race today.
During the years 1660 to 1685 the king would hold horse races and award prizes to the winner. Then in the years 1702 to 1714 horse racing between more then 2 horses open fort he public to watch became more and more common. It was at this time that betting on the horses became popular, and the professional sport of Horse Racing was born.
In the year 1750 the elite of horseracing got together to for the
Jockey Club to control and oversee horse racing in England. They wrote a set of rules and sanctioned racecourses to hold races following there rules.
Rules were also made to regulate the breeding of the horses. All the race horses had to have there
pedigree traced so the family history could be recorded. The task complete a book was published in 1791 called the General Stud Book. These horses are so inbred that they can be traced back to 1 of 3 horses known as the
Foundation siresin the eighteen hundreds the only horses that could be called thoroughbreds and allowed to race were those listed in the General Stud Book.
