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It would, and it does.
http://www.nationalsteeplechase.com/Get real how many people apart from a few owners ( and there would be precious few of them) would want to watch a load horses running around a field without any betting.
This many:
https://www.breyerhorses.com/files/imag … ills_9.jpgIt would be far more like pointing – people doing it for the love of the competition and sport.
That is on the decline and there are few bookmakers on course who’ll lay a fair bet (hence our horse went from 7/2 to 4/5 in a Maiden a couple of years ago when trying to get circa £4,000 on it).
Prize money would be poor (£200-400) first prize and the courses would be forced to sell land as no money in it – they’d end up racing around fields like at Langholm and Hawick up in Scotland.
Martin
It is a lot more like pointing over here (with the obvious exception of the races held at Saratoga), but prize money is plenty big thanks to support from corporate sponsors and wealthy patrons of the sport.
I very much doubt it!
The first thing that would happen would be all media coverage would end overnight, taking all advertising and sponsorship revenue with it. No racing on telly, no racing in the papers.
With no coverage, nobody would attend any race meetings. Maybe one or two racecourses would use their facilities still for racing but who would pay for all the maintenance, health-and-safety work, security etc? I would guess all racecourses would either sell their land, re-invent themselves as other leisure facilities or just shut down.
As Irish Stamp points out, jumps racing would become point-to-point with owner-funded prize money and races in a field. Within a decade, flat racing would have reverted to the 16th century with match races for private stakes. Wider interest would be non-existent.
Mike
If what I saw at Foxfield this spring was any indication, non-parimutuel steeplechases are doing just fine with advertising and sponsorship. And attendance; it took me over half an hour after the last race just to work my way through the crowd and get out of there!
I’d still go racing for the best quality stuff. But every country would need to be the same, because where gambling existed there’d be more prize money, attracting the best horses…
But let’s be honest here, even if there wasn’t any official gambling the illegals would soon move in. With non-regulated betting, no paper/computer trails, bets made with a shake of the hand… you’d get far more horses being "stopped".
But in the spirit of the original poster…
If there was some way of magically ending man’s wish to gamble… Sure it would exist, but in a massively reduced state and lack of atmosphere. Reduced prize money and no gambling means there is no other way for connections to make money. Therefore, fewer owners, trainers, jockeys able to make it pay, so fewer horses. Which as Paul says wouldn’t be a bad thing. Though it would be a fraction of what we have now, probably too small.Back to a pastime for the extremely rich. The owner-breeder might even make a come-back.
Value Is EverythingHonestly, how much fun would it be without betting?
For a clearer anwser, perhaps a poll should be put on here:
"Would you still watch horse racing, or go to the races, if no betting was available?"
Zip
Except there’d be no racecourses, owners, trainers or jockeys!
Mike
Incorrect Mike – there would be FEWER racecourses, owners, trainers and jockeys but that would be no bad thing.
What remained would be a leaner, trimmer sport which would be far superior, more competitive and, generally, better quality.
Of course it will never happen because the cancer of betting has eaten too far into the sport to the extent the bookmakers are now the de facto administrators of the sport.
No Paul that would not be the case,racing would not be better,stronger! I always loved the comment from Robert Sangster that Americans race for money and the Europeans race for prestige:) You can’t f#cking eat prestige mate! Spoken by a poonce with countless millions:) The roots of racing for learning jockeys and trainers their craft are the lesser country and provincial meetings. You seem to be of the Sangster ilk, like you would like to get rid of racing except for all the group 1 jockeys, trainers , horses. If you had your way English racing would have to put up with Coolmore v The Sheikh, how exciting that would be!
Miss Woodford
Your steeple chasing link website has a betting advert on it!! Hardly a point prover I think!They could just replace gambling with alcohol to replace the revenue, hen and stag doo’s, club 18-30’s etc.
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Miss Woodford
Your steeple chasing link website has a betting advert on it!! Hardly a point prover I think!You can’t actually bet on
jumps
races through that link. The NSA partnered with eBet to have their own little ADW site that earns them some extra money whenever people bet on (flat) racetracks with it.
In many Southern states where jumps meets are held betting on horse races is actually illegal. Even in Virginia, the birthplace of American Thoroughbred racing, it is heavily restricted. The owners of Colonial Downs had to pull quite a few legislative strings to get past the Bible thumpers.
They finally got wagering at Great Meadow for the Virginia Gold Cup this year but you can only bet at the course on race day. Last year there was supposed to be betting but the powers-that-be decided not to allow it at the last minute
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