Horse races have been run for as long as human beings and horses have been together. Whether you look back at chariot races in ancient Rome, or hunting races in Renaissance England, people have been pitting their horses against each other all through history. Many began in the countryside, run informally as people challenged each other, but most of today’s races are much more formal, with carefully laid out rules and recorded horse racing stats, and yes, of course, betting as well. That is an equally venerable tradition.

Racing with thoroughbreds is a subset of a type of race known as flat racing. This is where, as the name suggests, the horse races are run on a flat surface, usually made either of dirt or turf, and in turn the turf can either be natural or is sometimes synthetic. The flatness of the tracks, though, doesn’t mean that they are automatically straight as well. Most are in fact designed to be oval in shape, and have no banking on the corners.

Harness racing is the second of the three main types of races, run on an oval track that is banked along the curves, instead of on a flat track. While thoroughbred or quarter horse races feature the horses running with only a jockey on their backs, the harness race seems to have developed from early wagon or carriage races. So as well as differing from the flat races because of the sort of track used, it also differs in that the horses pull a cart and driver rather than having a jockey.

A third type of racing is the steeplechase. This involves a course that has obstacles such as small pools or other jumps. Sometimes these races are run as cross-country races, while others take place on planned, prepared tracks. Even though these horse races are also found in North America, they occur much more often in Britain. The US, on the other hand, leans more toward harness racing and other forms of the flat race, while horse racing in France is divided equally among all three types. Even though the races most recognized by the general public are those run on flat tracks, many other types exist, and thrive all over the world.

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