Why is horse racing called the "sport of kings"?

[no gnu taxes]

Not going to go into what brought this topic up for me.

But anyway.

It seems to me it would be the sport of wise guys and semi-alcoholic losers. Wouldn't screwing over peasants be the sport of kings?

[mnehring]

It isn’t about who stands around gawking, it is about who owns the horses. Horses are an expensive asset and throughout history, it took someone like a king or a lord to be able to afford to use their horses for sport versus as a tool.

[RetroSexual]

Golf. And screwing over the peasants.

[MetaThought]

I believe polo is the “sport of kings” but the reason is similar.

[I Drive Too Fast]

Thoroughbred racing was popular with the aristocrats and royalty of British society, earning it the title “Sport of Kings.”

[Ron C.]

Bah... a moniker tagged by British know-nothings.

It didn't take kings to race horses in the US, beginning in the colonies we had horse races. Much more so with the expansion of the nation where horse racing was a favorite pastime across the great American West from its very beginning.

[colorado tanker]

Only the nobility could afford horses. When they began returning from the Crusades with fast Arabians the sport really took off.

[OneWingedShark]

>When they began returning from the Crusades with fast Arabians the sport really took off.

Good pun.

[BipolarBob]

Why did you put semi-alcoholics in that grouping? Some of us don’t do anything halfway. I find the insinuation distasteful.

[VMI70]

That’s what I always heard.

This is from wiki.answers.com, for what it’s worth:

The Sport of Kings often confused as horse racing but it is in fact the game of POLO. .associatedcontent.com/article/43201/the_sport_of_kings_is_not_horse_racing.html?cat=14

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_called_the_sport_of_kings#ixzz1f9Kr78SP

[CrazyIvan]

It's how rich people blew their money before race cars. I remember a quote from an interview with a big time Indy car sponsor. He was asked why he sponsored a race car. He said that he did it because he had tried to burn the money in his back yard but couldn't do it fast enough.

[ottbmare]

And some of us aren’t kings, semi-alcoholics, or losers, but we do like riding Thoroughbreds around at 35 miles an hour or so.

[Doogle]

Racing in England dates as far as 1530 at York. Ten years later, Chester had its first racecourse. Two-horse match races for a private wager became popular among the nobility. That’s why today horse racing remains known as the Sport of Kings.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Because boxing is the “sweet science”.

[bunkerhill7]

My guess:

1. It originated with Jacob who, when Rachel died, buried her next to the hippodrome [from the original latin Vulgate from the greek? hippodrome=racetrack] Jacob was the leader of all the Hebrews in Canaan.

2. Joseph`s chariot that had no mention of a horse pulling it- but the Arab tradition says that Joseph`s bride-to-be, the daughter of the high priest, was promised that white horse by the Pharaoh, but Pharaoh gave it and the chariot to Joseph. She marries Joseph just to get her horse back. Joseph was as powerful as Pharaoh.

3. Jacob is almost blind but he can see Joesph from afar- Why> Because Joseph`s white horse can be seen in the sun a long way off with the bright sunlight bouncing off him.

[combat_boots]

Golf?

Gentlemen Only. Ladies Forbidden?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Why is horse racing called the "sport of kings"?

War is the sport of kings.

Everything else is just the sport of the well off.

[bunkerhill7]

Also, another guess is why women wear their fanciest hats ot opening day races?
Maybe Rachel had a big hat and was was the first to love horse racing?
Why would Jacob then bury her at the hippodrome if there wasn`t some kind of connection between Rachel and horse-racing?
-Who knows?

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Golf: To flog, backwards.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"semi-alcoholic losers"

Mabye they should call it the sport of the king of beers...