Horse racing in Levantia: Difference between revisions

Horse racing, especially thoroughbred racing, was a sport enjoyed by all, especially since the period of the [[Aedanicad]]. According to scholars, "Thoroughbred racing was the rare sport that was trending with both social and economic elites and the lower classes". Horse racing was an enamored sport that was popular for its time in all regions of the [[Holy Levantine Empire]] and took a downturn for a while as the economy began to decline following the [[Red Interregnum]]. Many racing events were canceled altogether during the Levantine theater of the [[Great War]] from 1927 to 1935. The post-war period the rebirth of the horse racing sport as a welcome institution of normalcy, even as the [[Third Fratricide]] continued to be fought in [[Dericania]], and remains popular today. Racing is governed by the [[Levantine Union]] Equine Sport Authority through its national affiliate organizations.

The various principalities that make up modern [[Burgundie]] engaged in horse racing to varying degrees until the 1790s when steeplechasing became ubiquitous across the [[Kingdom of Dericania]]. Minor, informal races had occurred across the Kingdom prior to this but it become an unofficial sport of the kingdom around this time. As feudalism fell and professional armies rose across the southern portions of Dericania, young professional cavalry officers sought ways to train and compete. By the 1810s in the few principalities that could afford a professional cavalry corps were requiring forms of flat racing and steeplechasing as part of military training. This became associated with the dashing appearance of cavalry officers and became associated with the officer class and civilian landowners took up the sport as a demonstration of status. By the 1830s, nobles and generous landowners would gives days off to their tenant farmers on race days and it became a joyous communal holiday. The later half of the 19th century, the[[Southern Levantine Mediatization Wars]] saw the dissolution of the aristocracy and as such their grand estates. This coincided with the industrial revolution in [[Burgundie]], which when combined saw workers flooding into the coastal cities. Horse racing became a rare phenomenon and was typically was a game played between wealthy friends rather than a spectator sport. For nearly 20 years horse racings prominence waned and almost disappeared. However, in the 1890s the ''New Stud Movement'' revived horse racing in [[Burgundie]]. In [[1892]], future [[Imperator]] of[[Caphiria]] [[Magasevetus|Juvano Baldolianti]], was granted patriarchy of House Tervarinus by [[Imperator]] Arieri II. As part of an austerity plan he sold off his father's race horses. The gens des mejans looking to demonstrate their wealth, but separate themselves from the aristocrats of old, flocked to the various auctions and formed Burgoignesc Breed Registry to maintain records of the new studs they were creating. Of the approximately 1,000 horses in the Tervarinus stables, 629 were brought to [[Burgundie]]. Horse racing renewed itself as a spectator sport for the working classes who were lucky enough to have a benefactor who owned horses. For the gens des mejans it was an all out competition, not just on the race track, but who could bring bigger crowds, build bigger and more opulent race tracks, and who could breed faster horses. Concurrent with the rise in the interest in human eugenics, equine eugenics became a craze in the early 1900s. Studding fees became astronomical as the pseudo-science purported to become more exacting. The Burgoignesc Breed Registry's recording fees also sky rocketed and the industry of horse racing and its affiliated services became a driving economic factor in many of the upland regions of the country. It was also one of the first legal forms of gambling in [[Burgundie]]. The Great Depression put a damper on the rampant spending on horse racing, as well as eugenics falling out of favor, and the [[Second Fratricide]]. The opulence and decadence of the gens des mejans and their race horses was eschewed. With the outbreak of the [[Second Fratricide]] and the [[Great War]] many of the horses were drafted as well as their riders. The horses proved to be poor war horses and few who saw combat survived. The [[Army of Burgundie|cavalry corps]] of [[Burgundie]] consumed many of the stables and studs with dispensations only for studs with less then 10 horses remaining. This caused incredible resentment between the upper classes and the [[Army of Burgundie]] with riots leading to mass arrests and blood shed on multiple occasions. Horse racing stopped altogether from [[1927]]-[[1955]] and for much of the later 1950s and 60s it was a fringe sport. In the 1960s and the early 1970s large public race courses in [[Burgundie]] by corporations looking to entice workers. Races were held in the morning and job fairs in the afternoon. The large social gatherings went beyond class or social standing and became an attraction for all. Since few studs survived the [[Great War]] Burgoignesc stables were opened to breeds for a variety of places. The Burgoignesc Breed Registry worked tirelessly to track the studs of these new horses and as a result emerged in the 1990s as the premier Breed Registry in the world with the most complete records.