The Sport

History

King Charles II started so set up races with his horses on Newmarket already in the 17th century. Newmarket is a race course that is situated north of London.

This was the beginning of a sport that has developed into one of the most spectacular sports in the world. The horseracing in Britain.

During this period, Charles made Newmarket very fashionable and it became a second capital the years after 1622, when the first known race took place.

In fact, the King was not the first one. We know that there were horseraces at this place long before the King's arrival, when the Romans exercised their horses at Newmarket, to prepare their horses for battle.

As horse racing became more popular, the horse racing industry realized that there was a need of rules and regulations within the arrangement of a sport like this one, and the result of this was, for example the Jockey Club. The horse racing industry today is huge, involving a lot of people. Therefore, we also find a complex situation when we try to sort out what people are in charge, and what people are economical responsable for a horse/ a race.

Today, Newmarket is known all over the world, being an international centre for horse-racing.

The daily life for a horse-racing / a racing-horse

Gamblers, owners, trainers, grooms and many other people all want a share of the cake. A team work to take care of the daily work with the horse, the course and the training facilities. The jockeys and the horses are most frequent to appear the media.

The most famous race is the Grand National that takes place outside Liverpool at the Aintree Racecourse.

Being a jockey...

To become a jockey is quite difficult. One could say that you, as well as the top models, have to have a career based on your appearance.

You should have a weight of about 52-53 kg, and the shorter you are the better it is .

A jockey often works as a freelancer and therefore, he/she must prove their skills, if they want to keep a stable with talented horses to ride.This often means; up in the morning, stay fit all day; a long day's training before you can go to sleep and, you have to have a huge portion of social competence, because you have to co-operate with a lot of people that are involved in the horse's training (trainers, owners, grooms etc). And they all want to have their own saying in the case.

Althought the horses are mostly taken care of by girls, the horse-racing is still "man’s world". It was not until 1975 that the first professional woman jockey was allowed to ride/compete against men in horse-racing.

The royal influences within the sport

The sport was influenced by the Royal family and by tradition, the Royal family owns racehorses and they continued to give the horse-racing their support.