A horse race is a contest of speed between horses, ridden by jockeys or pulling sulkies and driven by drivers. It is a sport that originated in medieval England, where professional riders demonstrated their horses’ top speeds to potential buyers by racing them over short distances. The earliest races were over open fields or roads, but over time they became more sophisticated and took place on specialized tracks.
Today, most flat horse races are run over distances between two and three miles. These races are considered tests of both speed and stamina. Many horse races have pedigree rules that require a horse’s sire and dam to be purebred individuals of the same breed. This is an attempt to limit the number of foreign-bred horses in a race and to ensure that all participants are competing on equal terms.
In addition to having the required pedigree, a horse must be of a certain age and sex to compete in a race. This limits the number of young horses in a race and helps reduce injuries to the older, more experienced horses. In addition, there are weight restrictions that prevent a horse from winning if it is too light or too heavy.
While the sport is not without controversy, most people agree that it is a spectacle worth seeing. Some critics, such as the activist group Horseracing Wrongs, argue that racing is not a sport at all but a cruel and brutal industry that exploits animals and makes money off their deaths. They claim that the sport is not only unfair to the animals but also to the people who watch it.
The board and current CEO of a company that is considering using an overt horse race to select its next leader should consider whether the organization’s culture and organizational structure are conducive to this type of competition. For example, if the company’s strategy depends on strong collaboration among different parts of the organization, an overt leadership contest may disrupt the process and cause the company to lose the benefits of a well-executed plan.
Moreover, if the company has a high percentage of women or minorities in senior management positions, an overt horse race for the CEO position could hurt those groups by causing them to feel that they are not being fairly represented. In addition, a horse race can damage the reputation of a company by attracting attention from media outlets and political opponents.
A study by Johanna Dunaway, associate professor of communication at Texas A&M University, and Regina G. Lawrence, associate dean for research and faculty development at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, found that corporate-owned and large-chain newspapers were more likely to frame elections as a horse race. They studied news stories that ran in newspaper between Sept. 1 and Election Day in 2004 and 2006. They also found that these stories were more common when the race was close. This suggests that horse races are a common way to frame an election.