A horse race is a contest of speed among horses that are either ridden by jockeys or pulled by sulkies and their drivers. It has been a popular sport since ancient times and is a major component of the culture of many civilizations. In addition to being a popular spectator sport, it is also a major gambling event.
As with most other industries, sectors and sports, horse racing has been impacted by the advancement of technology. While the sport has retained most of its rules, regulations and traditions, it has benefited from technological advances that are helping to keep horses safer on the track. These include thermal imaging cameras that detect overheating after a race, MRI scanners and endoscopes which can pick up a range of minor to major health issues that might otherwise go unnoticed, as well as 3D printing that can produce casts, splints and prosthetics for injured or ill horses.
While some industry informants did not ignore or downplay the human factor in these images, they often seemed to do so as a way of naturalising, normalising and trivialising the impact of racing practices on the horse. For example, most of the informants that responded to Image 3, which depicts a thoroughbred resisting entering the starting gate, dismissed it as a normal behaviour. This may be a result of the industry’s desire to convey to researchers that there is no welfare issue here, or a failure to recognise that the behaviour shown by the animal in this picture is a clear expression of fear and resistance.
Similarly, when industry informants were asked to comment on the impact of a number of different pieces of equipment, they frequently naturalised, normalised and downplayed the impacts. In the case of the bit, for example, they described it as a piece of equipment that has “always been used that way”, despite studies showing that most horses show behavioural evidence of sensitivity to their bits, from mild irritation to extreme pain and distress.
They also appeared to downplay the impact of racing on the horse’s mental and emotional state by referring to it as an activity that is “fun” for both horses and humans, despite studies demonstrating that the enjoyment of horse-racing by the human participants is often a function of the extent to which the horses enjoy it.
This approach to reporting on horse races has been described as horse race journalism. It has been criticised by academics, as having the potential to damage the reputation of the sport and lead to a decline in the interest of young people in it. Nevertheless, it has persisted because it is easy to do and because the freedoms of speech and press mean that news outlets have wide leeway to report on horse races.