What is a Horse Race?
A horse race is a competition in which horses compete to finish first over a set distance. The sport has existed in a variety of forms for centuries. It has developed from a primitive contest of speed or stamina between two horses to a sophisticated entertainment business, with huge crowds, high-tech monitoring equipment and enormous sums of money at stake. However, the essential concept has remained unchanged over time.
A specialized type of horse race is the endurance horse race. These are bred and trained to cover long distances over a period of hours or days. Often endurance races are run over rugged terrain and under adverse weather conditions. The sport is widely practiced in the United States, and is an Olympic event.
In addition to requiring endurance, an endurance horse must also possess excellent stamina, and be able to endure long periods of exercise without deteriorating in performance. The breed of the horse used for endurance racing varies from country to country, with some nations favoring sprinters, while others prefer longer-distance breds that excel at stamina.
The term “horse race” is also used to refer to a specific management style of selecting a chief executive officer, in which senior executives are pitted against each other with the winner becoming the next CEO. This approach to succession has proven remarkably successful for companies such as General Electric, Procter & Gamble and GlaxoSmithKline. It has been criticized by some executives and governance observers, though, for the lingering effect that a CEO horse race can have on an organization.
One such effect is the erosion of company culture, which can result when a succession horse race drags on for months or even years. A second consequence is that the process can sever ties between directors and key employees, who may have aligned themselves with an unsuccessful candidate.
Research has shown that a growing body of evidence supports the conclusion that when journalists covering elections focus primarily on who’s in the lead and who’s behind – what is known as horse race coverage – voters, candidates and the news media suffer.
The best horse race journalism focuses on making complicated numbers mean something to readers, rather than just giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to frontrunners and underdogs. This requires a deep understanding of what the numbers mean, and why they matter. It also means examining the real costs of the race itself, from the health of the animals to the environmental impact. It’s a tall order, but the best horse race journalists are up for it. A growing number of them are, in fact.