A horse race is a competition in which horses compete to travel a specified distance at the fastest possible speed. It is a sport that requires the skill and judgment of a rider to coax a maximum performance from a mount, and which rewards those riders with large sums of money for winning races. Horse racing has a long history of doping and other forms of illegal activity. Until recently, the rules governing horse racing were lax and enforcement was difficult. Modern painkillers and anti-inflammatories designed for humans bled over into race preparation, and powerful drugs meant to improve a horse’s fitness were used. Racing officials could not keep up with all the new substances, nor did they have the testing capacity to detect them. In addition, the penalties were often weak, and a trainer punished for breaking the rules in one jurisdiction could simply move to another.

The sport of horse racing was born from the necessity to transport soldiers and merchants across the plains and oceans. A small group of horses, usually thoroughbreds, would be hitched to two-wheeled carts called chariots or sulkies and driven to their destinations. This method of transportation was labor intensive, expensive and inefficient. The development of the harness allowed for horses to be transported in vehicles without the need for a team of sleigh-drivers, and the sport of horse racing became popular.

There are many different types of horse races. Each has its own set of rules and regulations. For example, some horse races are open to all participants regardless of age, sex or birthplace, while others are restricted to certain owners, based on the horses’ previous results. Some races are also categorized by the type of surface on which they will take place, with dirt, turf and grass surfaces all having their own rules.

In horse racing, the term “handicap” refers to a system of weight assignments to horses for the purpose of making them as equal as possible to competing horses on any given day or race. These handicaps can be set centrally, or by individual racetracks. In the United States, there are a number of national and state handicapping organizations that set the handicapping formulas used at most racetracks.

Some of the most famous horse races in the world are the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Each has its own history of legends and lore attached to it. Behind the romanticized facade of a horse race, however, there is a world of injuries, drug abuse and gruesome breakdowns.

A bucked shin is an injury caused by a fall from a horse onto the inside of its knee or hock. The horse is then said to have been “bucked up.” The bucked shin is often the result of a misstep by a horse on a slippery surface, such as an oil-stained track.

A hand ride is a type of riding where the jockey uses only his or her hands to urge the horse on. This is contrasted with a whip ride, where the jockey also uses the rider’s whip to urge the horse on.