For previous 'parts' please check out the history section of the blog.
Pakistan
Horse races are held
in Pakistan at four different clubs. In Lahore at Lahore Race Club, Rawalpindi
at Chakri, in Karachi at Karachi Race Club and in Gujrat at.
Philippines
Horseracing in the
Philippines began in 1867. The history of Philippine horseracing has three
divisions according to the breeds of horses used. They are the Philippine-pony
era, the Arabian-horse era, and the Thoroughbred-era.
Singapore
Horse racing was
introduced to Singapore by the British during the colonial era and remained one
of the legal forms of gambling after independence. It remains a highly popular
form of entertainment with the local Singaporean community to this day. Races
are typically held on Friday evenings and Sundays at the Singapore Turf Club in
Kranji. Horse racing has also left its mark in the naming of roads in Singapore
such as Race Course Road in Little India, where horse racing was first held in
Singapore, and Turf Club Road in Bukit Timah where Singapore Turf Club used to
be situated before moving to its current location in 1999.
South Korea
Horse racing in South
Korea dates back to May 1898, when a foreign language institute run by the
government included a donkey race in its athletic rally. However, it wasn't
until the in 1920s that modern horse racing involving betting developed. The
nation's first authorised club, the Chosun Racing Club, was established in 1922
and a year later, the pari-mutuel betting system was officially adopted for the
first time.
Types of bets
In North American racing, the three most common ways to bet
money are to win, to place, and to show. A bet to win, sometimes called a
"straight" bet, means that you stake money on the horse, and if it
comes in first place, the bet is a winner. In a bet to place, you are betting
on your horse to finish either first, second, and/or third, depending on how
many horses are in the race; for example, in a race with 5 horses a place bet
would only be for first and second place, but in a race with 10 horses you bet
on your horse to finish first, second, or third. A bet to show wins if the
horse finishes first, second or third. Since it is much easier to select a
horse to finish first, second, or third than it is to select a horse just for
first, the show payoffs will be much lower on average than win payoffs.
In Europe, Australia, and Asia, betting to place is
different since the number of "payout places" varies depending on the
size of the field that takes part in the race. For example, in a race with
seven or less runners in the UK, only the first two finishers would be considered
winning bets with most bookmakers. Three places are paid for eight or more
runners, whilst a handicap race with 16 runners or more will see the first four
places being classed as "placed".
The term "Each-Way" bet is used everywhere but
North America, and has a different meaning depending on the location. An
each-way bet sees the total bet being
split in two, with half being placed on the win, and half on the place. Bettors
receive a payout if the horse either wins, and/or is placed based on the place
criteria as stated above. The full odds are paid if the horse wins,, with a
quarter or a fifth of the odds if only
the place section of the bet is successful. In the UK some bookmakers will pay
for the first five for a place on the
Grand National. This additional concession is offered because of the large
number of runners in the race . Occasionally other handicap races with large
fields receive the same treatment from
various bookmakers, especially if they are sponsoring the race. The rough equivalent
in North America is an "across the board" bet, where equal bets on a
horse are set to win, place and show. Each portion is treated by the
totalizator as a separate bet, so an across-the-board bet is merely a
convenience for bettors and parimutuel clerks. For instance, if a $2
across-the-board bet were staked on a
horse which finished second, paying $4.20 to place and $3.00 to show, the
bettor would receive $7.20 on what is essentially a $6 wager.
In addition to straight wagers, exotic wagers offer bettors
an opportunity to incorporate the placement of different horses in one or
multiple races. The two broad types of exotic wagers are horizontal and
vertical. Horizontal exotic wagers are bets on multiple horses in one
particular race, while vertical exotic wagers involve predicting results across
multiple races. Both have specific options for which bets are available and are
detailed below.
In the most basic horizontal wager, an exacta, the bettor
selects the first and second place horses in the exact order. Picking the first
three finishers in exact order is called a trifecta and a superfecta refers to
the specific finishing order of the top four horses. A quinella boxes an
exacta, allowing the first two finishers to come in any order and still win.
Boxing is a tactic that increases the odds of winning an
exotic wager by removing the need to choose the exact order. The quinella
mentioned above is the basic box, but boxing can be applied to the trifecta and
superfecta as well. A wheel is when a horse is selected in a specific position
with multiple horses finishing ahead or behind the one being wheeled.
Vertical bets are spread over different races. A daily
double is an exotic wager placed on the winner of two consecutive races.
Picking the winner of three, four, five or six straight races is referred to as
a Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5 and Pick 6 respectively.
Betting exchanges
In addition to traditional betting with a bookmaker, punters
are able to both back and lay money on an online betting exchange. Punters who
lay the odds are in effect acting as a bookmaker. The odds of a horse are set
by the market conditions of the betting exchange which is dictated to by the
activity of the members.
Criticism
Organized groups dedicated to protecting animals, such as
the Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, target some horse sports with claims of animal cruelty. Horse racing
and rodeo are most commonly targeted, due both to their high visibility and to
the level of stress and potential physical dangers to the equines involved.
Criticism of horse racing and its practices runs a wide gamut, however; while
some may consider even fairly drastic discipline of horses non-abusive, others
may consider abuse to be anything done against the will of the animal in
question. Some people may consider poor living conditions abusive, while others
might consider riding abusive.
In 2009, animal rights group PETA released undercover video
of alleged abuses of former race horses at a slaughterhouse in Kumamoto, Japan.
The group states that 20,000 horses, including former Thoroughbred race horses,
were killed in 2008 in Japan for use as human and pet food.
Dangers
There are many dangers in horse racing for both horse and
jockey: a horse can stumble and fall, or fall when jumping an obstacle,
exposing both jockey and horse to the danger of being trampled and injured.
Anna Waller, a member of the Department of Emergency
Medicine at the University of North Carolina, co-authored a four-year-long study
of jockey injuries and stated to the New York Times that "For every 1,000
jockeys you have riding, over 600 will have medically treated injuries."
She added that almost 20% of these were serious head or neck injuries. The
study reported 6,545 injuries during the years 1993–1996. More than 100 jockeys
were killed in the US between 1950 and 1987.
Horses also face dangers in racing. 1.5 horses die out of
every 1000 starts in the US. The U.S. Jockey Club in New York estimates that
about 600 horses died at racetracks in 2006. The Jockey Club in Hong Kong
reported a far lower figure of .58 horses per 1000 starts. There is speculation
that drugs used in horse racing in the US which are banned elsewhere are
responsible for the higher death rate in the US.
Tipster Street.
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