The Horse Racing Industry

The history of horse racing in Ireland, this is a look at the industry from the early days to the present. This research examines and explains the main players and places in the industry – and most importantly, the horse

History of Horse Racing in Ireland

Horse racing has a long history across the world. It was in the Ancient Greek Olympics and was very popular among those in the Roman Empire. Almost every country in the world has a race course and there are over thousand upon thousand races a year all over the world. Each country has different top class races. In Ireland and in Britain, well known race events such as Grand National, Guineas, Derby, Gold Cup and other Grade 1 races. The Horse racing industry contributes enormously to the Irish

The combined assets in 2006 (www.go.racing.ie) were estimated to be around 2.5bn euro. The main characters in the Horse racing industry are both male and female. It was very much a male dominated business. Women are now very much part of the industry and participate in all aspects of the racing world. Women are trainers (Jessica Harrington), jockeys (Katie Walsh) and presenters (Claire Baling) and Bloodstock agents (Siobhan Tolerton).

Literature Review

Horse Racing has a long history it was in the Ancient Olympic Games in Greece. The Roman Empire, Greeks and Byzantines used horses for chariot racing. This was both dangerous to the rider and the horse. Both suffered bad and at times fatal injuries. Horse racing has a long and distinguished history across the world. Horse racing was practiced in Ancient Greece, Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. It also plays an important part of the legend, of the contest between the steeds of the god Odin and the giant Hrungnir in Norse mythology.

In the Roman Empire, chariot and horseback racing were major industries. From the mid-15th century until 1882, spring carnival in Rome closed with a horse

At present, we are witnessing a golden era in Irish Racing with Irish trained and bred horses winning all over the world. They say that ‘Ireland is to horse racing as Brazil is to soccer’. If horse racing were soccer we would win the World Cup every time! In places such as Hong Kong and Dubai, Irish people occupy some of the highest positions in racing. Amazing people like the late Michael Osborne have played a huge role in the international development of horse racing. He was advisor to many racing authorities throughout the world such as Japan, Bahrain, Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran. He set up the World Series of Racing and managed the launch of the richest race in the world, the Dubai World Cup. All racehorses competing under the rules of racing are thoroughbreds. Coolmore Stud, in Fethard, Co. Tipperary, is the world leader in thoroughbred breeding. They have over 50 stallions breeding on five continents. It is just one of the most successful Irish businesses and is still growing. We are the third largest producer of thoroughbred foals in the world (12,004 in 2006) USA and Australia ahead of