Gambling News

The Impact of Horse Race Coverage on Elections

Horse race

The glitzy spectacle of a horse race has the power to captivate people, drawing crowds in the millions and earning billions in wagers. The sport has undergone many changes as it has moved into the modern era. While the horses and jockeys remain subject to the rigors of the sport, they benefit from advances such as thermal imaging cameras that monitor heat levels after a race, MRI scanners that scan for injuries, X-rays that can identify preexisting conditions, endoscopes that peer inside a horse’s body, and 3D printers that produce casts and splints for injured horses.

But the most significant change has occurred behind the scenes. While horse racing tries to maintain the image of a sport of well-cared for, healthy animals, it hides the reality. A new study, authored by Johanna Dunaway of Texas A&M University and Regina G. Lawrence of the University of Oregon, analyzed print news stories about races for governor and U.S. Senate in 2004, 2006, and 2008 to see how racehorses were portrayed.

The researchers found that newspapers with corporate owners were more likely to frame the elections as a competition among equine competitors than those owned by individuals. And they were more likely to portray the contest as a winner-take-all affair, especially in close races and during the weeks leading up to election day. The implication of these findings is that horse race coverage tends to influence the way the races are perceived, and thus may affect the outcome.

Horses that are bred to run in horse races are often put into intensive training at ages of two and three, while their skeletal systems are still developing. A thoroughbred does not reach full maturity, when the growth plates in its bones fuse together, until it is five or six years old. Racing young takes a toll on the animals’ health and can result in catastrophic injuries such as fractures, lacerations, and sprains.

In their natural habitat, horses are social creatures that spend most of their time grazing in open fields. But because they are confined to small, isolated stalls in the barn and can only race once or twice a week, their normal instincts are inhibited. This can lead to stress and anxiety, which can manifest as repetitive compulsive behavior such as crib-biting (where a horse grasps a fixed object with its front teeth, contracts its neck muscles, and pulls backward while grunting), weaving (a repetitive behavioral pattern in which the animal shifts its weight back and forth), and even self-harm, like kicking or biting.

Injuries are common in horse races, with one out of every 22 horses being unable to finish the race or dying during the race. But the skewed economics of the industry, in which most racehorses cost less than a decent used car and whose purses are jacked up by taxpayer-funded casino money, create an incentive for horsemen to push their animals past their limits. And that, advocates say, leads to unsafe conditions for the equine athletes.