Horseracing, thoroughbred breeding and gambling on racing are global industries worth several hundred billion dollars. They are also industries facing serious challenges, from the rise of alternative forms of leisure gambling to concerns about the ethical treatment of animals in all equestrian sports. This book offers a broad-ranging examination of the contemporary horseracing industry, from geographical, economic, social, ethical and environmental perspectives. The book draws on in-depth, mixed-method research into the racing and breeding industries in the US, Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand, and includes comparative material on other key racing centres, such as Ireland, Singapore and Hong Kong. It explores the economic structure of the global racing business, including comparisons with other major international sport businesses and other equestrian sports. It examines the social and cultural roots of the sport through its association with, and impact on, rural places, communities and environments from Kentucky to Newmarket – highlighting racing’s particular blend of tradition and scientific and technological innovation. The book also explores the ethical issues at the heart of horseracing, from reproduction to the use of the whip, and the inescapable tension between the horse as an instrumentally valuable commodity and the horse as an intrinsically valuable animal with needs and interests. The Global Horseracing Industryconcludes by considering alternative futures for this major international sports business. The book is illuminating reading for anybody with an interest in sport, business, cultural geography, animal studies, or environmental studies.

Getting Down is not a typical racetrack story. Seabiscuit, Swaps, Man o War, John Henry, Secretariat, and Zenyatta may well be mentioned, but this story is about the people of racing, not the horses. Its about racetrack workers, on both the back and front sides of the track. Its about racetrack owners and managers. Its about those who own the horses and train them, and its about the people who ride them. Its also about the people who pay to go to the races - the patrons, including the rich and famous, along with the not so rich and famous, all the way down the economic ladder to the out and out homeless. The above categories include some of the strangest, meanest, most dangerous, most pathetic, most ruthless people on the face of this earth. Yet, my list of characters also includes some of the nicest, kindest, most generous, funniest, happiest people one could ever hope to meet. And since this book is also about me and my over fifty yeras working in this industry, Im going to let you decide in which of the above categories you think I might best fit. Getting Down is about getting down. The term, getting down, is racetrack lingo having to do with the process of successfully putting ones wager on a given horse, in the right race, before getting shut out. In other words, its about successfully making ones bet before the race begins and betting for that race But the scope of this story is, as you will see, much broader than that. Indeed, it is a story about life, because in one way or another, in one form or another, life itself is about getting down.

How horse racing's pioneering use of communication and information networks helped shape the modern media, information, and leisure environment. The horse racing industry has been a pioneer in interactive media, information networks, and their deployment. The race track and the off-track betting parlor offer interactive media environments that reconfigure the relationships among private and public space and presence and copresence. In this book, Holly Kruse explores how horse racing has used media over the last several decades, arguing that examining the history and context of horse racing and gambling gives us a clearer understanding of the development of data networks, media complexes, public entertainment, and media publics. Kruse describes an enormous industry that depends on global information and communication flows made possible by a network linking racetracks, homes, off-track betting, farms, and auction sites. Racetrack architecture now allows for the presence of screens, most showing races from other locations. Online betting sites enable bettors to wager from home. Off-track betting facilities collect wagers on races from all over the country. Odds are set interactively through the pari-mutuel market system. Kruse considers the uses of public space, and its redefinition by public screens; the effect of interactive media on the racing industry, including networked, in-home betting; the “technopanic” over online poker and the popularity of in-home pari-mutuel wagering; and the use of social media by racing fans to share information and creative work with no financial payoff.