It isn’t like the NBA or the NFL where people watch almost every match, or at the very least, every match their team plays. It is rare to find Horse Racing fans who enjoy every single race or have a particular horse they like. In European soccer, fans will often travel thousands of miles during a season to see their team play all across their country, and in some cases the whole continent. They go with banners, with shirts, with flags, with flares and sometimes in costume.
It is hard to imagine anyone who loves Horse Racing doing anything even remotely similar. You can’t imagine someone with a huge banner with the name of their favourite horse on chugging down a beer and chanting. Yet it is a sport with a big following, when the bigger events are on, it is not rare to see hundreds and thousands of people turn up. What is even more impressive, is the amount of casual fans who go there, people who don’t know a furlong from a yard. People who do not watch any Horse Racing on television, yet countdown the days until the annual event they go to is on.
Horse Racing has some events which are, in some cases, bigger than the sport themselves Like the Superbowl, the world cup final or even the World Series in baseball, some people will not watch a single game or match but will watch the big events. Horse Racing has this in abundance and it arguably owing to its events which are always fun, glamorous and exciting.
They are special and different from other sporting events as they often require smart dress, they encourage you to enjoy the finer things like champagne and they are as much about the experience of being there as they are about actual Horse Racing. These are some of the best examples of those events, of the racing meets that are almost bigger than the sport, that attract hundreds of thousands of visitors and million of dollars in gambling money. They are the biggest and most prestigious Horse Racing events in the world.
Cheltenham Festival
Cheltenham is one of the most well known and historically significant Horse racing meetings in the world. It is special for a number of reasons, which the main one being because of the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the other being just how much money is gambled there by punters. Around £150 million is gambled at the festival each year, a staggering amount and one that reflects why it is so important to bookmakers who see it’s as one of their busiest weeks. It is so vital to them that they offer a number of 2018 Cheltenham free bets to entice customers to have a free bet before, hopefully, gambling more. The Gold Cup is the biggest race at the festival and previous winners have becomes legends of the sport.
Ascot
Another British festival but one that differs from Cheltenham owing to the fact that it is attended by royalty. It has an air of real class owing to the fact that all of the royals attend and the Queen’s horses often run there. It is a festival that is also known for ladies day, for the discussion of all the beautiful hats worn by visitors there as well as being a great place to spot celebrities. It really is a special festival and one that has been around for more than 150 years for good reason.
Kentucky and the derby
In the United States, no race is bigger than the Kentucky derby which is known across the world. The name conjures up images of the south and of top quality horses and their jockeys competing at the highest level and going head to head to reach the top of the horse racing world and claim the huge prize for the winner. It has 150,000 visitors despite the fact the race lasts little more than two minutes.
Melbourne Cup
Australia also has some great horse racing traditions and it is a wonderful and fun race which most captures the imagination down under, the Melbourne Cup. Attended by the best of the best it is very prestigious and winners are usually the creme de la creme of racing.
