A horse race is an event in which a horse, jockey and driver compete to win a prize. The races may be organized by age, sex or other criteria. The races are held at a variety of places, including the prestigious Churchill Downs in Kentucky and Saratoga in New York. Horse racing is one of the most popular sports in the United States and around the world. It has a rich history and has been an important part of many cultures, such as Ancient Greece, Rome, Babylon and Syria. It is also an important part of myth and legend, including the contest between Odin’s steed Hrungnir and the giant Hrungnirr in Norse mythology.
A company’s horse race to select its next CEO can have a long-term impact on the company’s ability to fill other senior management positions. Unless the process is carefully managed, the board that chooses a winner could lose a number of strong leaders deeper in the organization who had aligned themselves with an unsuccessful candidate and may be less likely to support the successful nominee.
The horse race may also disrupt the business and make it difficult for the new leader to quickly stabilize the situation. Depending on how the competition and decision are handled, it may also have a negative impact on morale and performance in the rest of the organization.
In the weeks leading up to the Breeders’ Cup, Santa Anita officials sounded the alarm about the health of their equine athletes. Their chief concern was the horses’ safety, and they flooded the training zone with veterinarians and expensive imaging equipment, screening each horse for preexisting conditions. They looked at each horse’s coat in the walking ring before the race and listened for signs of discomfort in their gaits on the track.
They took pains to make sure that the stalls were clean, and they had a team of veterinary experts on hand during morning workouts. They told the public that they would not run a horse if it did not appear to be in good condition.
Despite all this, several horses died during the race, including Eight Belles and Medina Spirit. At the starting gate, Mongolian Groom balked. A betting aficionado will often look at a horse’s coat in the walking ring and, if it is bright and rippling with just enough sweat to suggest that it is ready to go, consider it an “overlay.”
The truth is, horses are routinely abused. And if racing wants to survive in a modern society, culture and justice system that is increasingly recognizing that animals are entitled to certain fundamental rights (including survival of the for-profit businesses that created them), it will have to tackle this problem head on. That means implementing an industry-sponsored wraparound aftercare solution for all racehorses once they are done competing. And it means ending the crooked practices that have tainted racing for decades. Then maybe, just maybe, the horse race will be a winner.