There is no doubt that horses are human’s most loyal companions, and they’ve been around us for thousands of years. Evidence like the cave art in the Paleolithic cave has horse paintings that go back as early as 30,000 BCE, but back then, these depictions were probably of wild horses that were hunted for meat.
Some new studies suggest that Eurasian steppe bred horses around 2200 BCE, which shows that we have a long relationship with these animals.
And horse racing isn’t just a modern thrill. Although we are all warming up before the Kentucky Derby betting 2025 in May, it is a good idea to look for horse racing clues from our ancestors.
We can see those ancient civilizations, apart from using horses for travel and agriculture, they’ve also used them for entertainment like racing. So, the tale of human ingenuity and equine might stretch back millennia.
Let’s go through some historical records and biblical studies and try to unpack whether horse racing was present in ancient worlds.
The Early Beginnings
The true roots of horse racing, and the one we have the most evidence of goes back around 4500 BCE with Central Asia’s nomadic tribes, like the Botai culture in modern Kazakhstan. We are talking about people who were one of the first ones that managed to tame horses, riding them across the Eurasian Steppe and they were used for hunting and herding.
Fast forward to 2000 BCE, racing emerged as a natural flex. People bred horses and raced them just to see whose steed was fastest. How do we know that? Well, archaeological finds, like horse bones with bit wear, suggest informal contests kick off here.
Bear in mind that we are not talking about organized races. We are talking about a bunch of people arguing (and probably wagering) about which horse is fastest. Which was the birthplace of the thrill of speed, that changed the entire world of horse racing.
Mesopotamia Horse Racing
Let’s move to 1500 BCE, and Mesopotamia (Sumerians and Assyrians), which were the first people to organize chariot racing. Although they didn’t have a big horse breeding culture, they imported horses from the north, attached a two-wheeled rig, and raced them in an oval circuit.
They are also tied to war training, and such chariots were often used in wars.
Texts from Nineveh describe kings like Ashurbanipal staging races to flaunt power, their chariots decked in bronze and gold. These weren’t just games—winners earned bragging rights, loot, and favor from the gods.
Even in the Epic of Gilgamesh, we can see spots of equine sports, hinting at a culture where speed was revered.
Egypt and Horses
Egypt is a place that holds many unanswered questions, but one thing is for sure, they’ve used plenty of horses here. We are talking about times around 1600 BCE, when the New Kingdom, pharaohs like Ramses II turned them into status symbols. Yes, chariot races became elite displays, and although they were often tied to military drills, they also organized such races as a form of entertainment.
There are plenty of horse statues, symbols, and paintings across Egypt, such as the wall reliefs at Karnak, where you can see horses charging.
Still, the Book of the Dead mentions “swift horses” as afterlife perks, suggesting speed-held spiritual clout. It was more pageantry than sport, but the seed was there—horses as emblems of light and motion.
Greece The Birth Of Organized Horse Racing Events
Greece took racing to new heights by 1200 BCE, with chariot races roaring into the Olympic Games by 680 BCE. Homer’s Iliad paints the picture—Book 23’s funeral games for Patroclus feature a wild chariot clash, complete with crashes and cunning.
At Olympia, four-horse tethrippon races stretched 8 miles, drawing crowds to cheer heroes like Diomedes, who nabbed prizes of gold and slaves. Hippodromes sprang up, and victors got laurels—and epic poems. It’s where racing became a public obsession, blending sport with civic pride.
Rome
Rome turned racing into a colossus. By 600 BCE, the Circus Maximus—a 2,000-foot-long beast—hosted chariot races for 250,000 fans.
Twelve teams, backed by factions (Blues, Greens), ran seven-lap marathons, horses bred from North African stock hitting speeds that flipped rigs and fired up riots.
Emperor Nero raced himself, rigging wins, while Caligula pampered his horse Incitatus with marble stalls. It was chaos—glory for winners, death for losers—but it cemented racing as Rome’s beating heart, a far cry from quiet steppe dashes.
Biblical Times
The Bible doesn’t spell out “horse racing” in neon, but horses gallop through its pages with purpose. In 1 Kings 4:26, Solomon boasts 12,000 horses and 1,400 chariots—tools of war, yes, but hints of competition linger.
Job 39:19-25 marvels at a horse’s “thunderous neck” and fearless charge, a poetic nod to its power.
Jeremiah 12:5 asks, “If you’ve raced with men on foot and are weary, how will you compete with horses?”—speed is a metaphor for endurance. Elijah’s chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11) ups the ante, tying horses to divine drama. Scholars reckon informal races happened—kings testing steeds—but it’s more cultural echo than an Olympic event.
So, horse racing has been around us for thousands of years. Although the shape and form of these races are quite different nowadays, it proves that humanity always loved the thrill of racing horses.
