When we think of horse racing, many of us think of placing a Grand National bet on one of the many online betting sites. This is the most common way to bet on horses today, but we shouldn’t forget its long and rich history.
When was the first horse race?
Before betting on horses became a thing, horse racing was an event in and of itself that dates back to – unsurprisingly – Greek Olympic games some 2000 years ago. It’s seemingly impossible to pinpoint exactly when horse racing started, but the consensus over the first piece of evidence of racing on horses as a competitive sport was in Greece.
Quickly, though, the sport spread throughout Persia, Arabia, and China. It took a while to develop into the modern sport as we know it today, but these are the origins.
The next milestone in history would come in the 17th century when sports racing became big in the UK – and a little more organized. Although there were two-horse matches in Chester during 1539, the King’s Plate races were introduced by Charles II a century later and were a time when awards and prizes were introduced to the winner. It was also when the ruleset as we know it today began to be implemented.
When was the first bet placed on a horse race?
The exact answer to this question will never be known – it was likely way before our first piece of evidence for it. However, we do have a relatively good guess that betting on horses began commonplace during the reign of Louis XIV, which was around the beginning of the 18th century.
Modern horse racing as we know can be said to have begun in the mid-to-late 1700s. St. Leger is often referred to as the first modern horse race in England, which was in 1776. During this time though, gambling was essentially illegal in England (and much of the world). It wasn’t enforced well, though, so there would have been some wagers on the early St. Leger races.
Ascot Racecourse started in 1711 with some evidence that betting occurred, too.
19th century
The 19th century was the most important for sports betting on horses. This mid-Victorian era was when gambling was central to working-class leisure, along with drinking. This was a time when information, which would only be available at the racetracks, began being telegraphed and distributed more easily – making betting more accessible.
Active racing of horses doubled between 1837 and 1869 and it became a national sport. Income rose, gambling rose, and betting on the horses became mainstream.
20th and 21st century
A lot happened during the 20th century – but it was mostly boring regulation and two devastating world wars, so we’ll leave that for another day. One important thing did occur, though, which was how information was distributed and how bookmakers to bets. At first, it was in pubs and such, and later the classic physical bookie’s store became a place to not only bet on horses, but to watch them and socialise.
It is the 22 years in the 21st century that changed horse race betting the most, though. Information went from being in newspapers to being on blogs, news sites, and social media. Horse racing could be streamed from anywhere, bets could be placed on the mobile phone, and virtual horse racing became a way for people to bet on horses – real or not – at any time of the day.
