A horse race is a contest of speed between horses that are either ridden by jockeys or pulled by drivers. It is a popular sport and has a long history dating back to ancient civilizations. The contest has been featured in several literary works, including Homer’s Iliad and the mythological chariot races of Odin and the giant Hrungnir. Modern horse races are often held on track surfaces, with a number of different types of races offered. These include bred-for-the-race Thoroughbreds, sprint races for three to five year olds, and steeplechases.
In horse racing, winning is often a matter of inches. Many races are decided by fractions of a second, and horses are carefully trained to reach peak performance at the precise moment of a given race. A good trainer will be able to “read” a horse’s movements and anticipate the exact moment that it will accelerate in order to gain a decisive advantage over its rivals. The most successful horse owners will be able to identify the right jockey for each of their mounts and will be able to make precise adjustments in the rider’s riding style in order to achieve the maximum speed possible.
While the sport has a great deal in common with other sports, horse racing is also unique in that it relies on a code of silence to protect its insiders from criticism and protest. The fact that most horses cost no more than a used car and that the vast majority of the purse money is pumped into the race by taxpayer-financed casino cash creates enormous financial incentives for both breeders and horsemen to push their animals past their limits. To counter the effect of this incentive, regulators have tried to improve testing capacities and toughen penalties for violations.
But there is no way to prevent horse abuse unless the industry admits that it exists. To do so, it would have to acknowledge that the act of running a horse in a racetrack bears no resemblance to the way that horses are born and bred to run and play in an open field. It would have to agree that the sport is in need of radical reform. It would have to stop hiding behind a conspiracy theory about the source of the Times piece, and instead face the reality that it will take more funds for enhanced drug tests and stronger legal action against abusive trainers.
While some governance observers are uncomfortable with the classic succession “horse race” — wherein several prominent candidates compete in an overt way for the CEO role, with the winner becoming the next leader of the organization — most admired companies use it to ensure that they have strong leadership that can take their businesses to new heights. The challenge is to create a system that is fair and equitable while ensuring that the company has the best chance of attracting top talent and maintaining its competitive edge. That will require the cooperation of both the executive search firms and the boards that oversee them.