Another form of horse racing which has gained popularity over the years is harness horse racing. Harness racing is when the horses race in a particular gait generally by pulling sulkies or two-wheeled carts. The most commonly used horse for harness racing is the standardbred horses although in other European countries, the horses with French and Russian lineages are used and in Scandinavia, it is the cold-blooded horses.
It is the standardbred horses which are commonly used for the harness horse racing system because it is the breed which can trot or pace in a standard time, under a mile and the breed which was entered into the Standardbred stud book. This is because the standardbred horses have shorter legs and longer bodies than the thoroughbred horses. They also possess more amiable disposition and not as temperamental as the thoroughbred. They are perfect for the race which requires good disposition for strategy than just its speed. Thus, the horse racing results for the harness horse racing is generally dependent on the breed of horse.
Today’s standardbreds are the descendants of standardbred’s founding sire, Messenger. Messenger was a thoroughbred brought in the United States by the year 1788 after he was bought by the brother of John Jacob Astor, Henry Astor. Most of the American standardbreds are from the lineage of Messanger. This is because it is the ten sons of the champion Hambletonian 10, the grandson of Messenger, which sired the standardbred horses in later on.
Harness racing is done under two gaits, which are the trotting and the pacing gaits. The trotting is when the horses move their legs in diagonal pairs whereas in the pacers, the horses move their legs laterally. In Europe, the trotter is more popular and the most commonly held, while in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada, it is the pacer which is more commonly held and more popular. Harness racing is one of the most popular types of horse racing that there are even available horse racing software to guide the punters into better betting in this type of race.
