The horse race is a game where players place bets on horses to win. To win a bet, the horse must cross the finish line first. There are three main ways to bet on a horse race: ‘win’, ‘place’ and’show’. Bets are placed on one or more horses and, depending upon the type of bet, payouts can be small to large.

The game requires a minimum of $1 to play, after which players are dealt cards with racehorses on them. The goal is to make the most money by placing bets on the horse that crosses the finish line first in each of the races. A winning card is marked with a checkmark. Those with multiple checks on their card receive higher payoffs than those with only one checkmark.

During a race, the jockey on a horse will have to ride it in a safe manner while following the course and jumping any hurdles (if present). In the United States, there are three most common forms of betting: ‘win’, ‘place’, and’show’. ‘Win’ betting is the most popular and pays out the most money to the winner of each race. ‘Place’ betting is second in popularity and offers lower payoffs than ‘win’ bets. ‘Show’ bets pay out first, second and third place, but are much harder to predict than ‘win’ bets.

Horse racing in America can’t even start to address its underlying problems until it creates a fully funded industry-sponsored wraparound aftercare solution for all of the animals that leave the track and no longer profit from the sport. Then it can begin to attract the new customers it needs to avoid extinction.

Until then, the sport will continue to suffer from declining interest in its product and a public that is increasingly disinterested in seeing the excruciatingly painful deaths of horses. The death of Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby last year – and that of Medina Spirit in the Preakness Stakes two years earlier – prompted a national reckoning about the ethical and morality of racing’s brutal, money-driven exploitation of younger, healthier horses.

While charitable donations by horseracing enthusiasts are essential, they cannot replace a genuinely humane, lifelong tracking system for the thoroughbreds that leave the track, which would ensure their safety and prevent them from being bought and sold infinitely into unknown situations where they can be subjected to the exorbitant physical stress of running for the sport. Instead, most of these animals end up in slaughterhouses, where they are sliced into dog food and glue or fed to people in France and Japan as delicacies. Others are used as breeding stock, a profitable business for the industry. This is a business that can create as many horses as it wants, profit off them in racing and breeding, and then sell them into uncertain futures that often include tragically fatal heart attacks or broken limbs.