There was a time when horse racing served a purpose. Back when horses were the only means of transportation and work tasks, whether ploughing fields, carting goods or the means by which highwaymen and bushrangers eluded the police, tests for traits like speed, strength and endurance, were as important as car rally trials became when motor vehicles replaced horses. Contrary to popular belief, good people and businessmen rarely worked their horses to death. As with motor vehicles now, they knew that good maintenance made better economy, especially when one’s horse was one’s life or livelihood. However, along with known cases of mistreatment, which anti-cruelty laws were supposed to address, the use of horses for all tasks was, in itself, a cruelty which the coming of motor vehicles was supposed to end. As motor vehicles replaced horses and horse trials gave way to car rallies, horse “races” became obsolete. They now serve no practical purpose and merely serve the gambling industry or silly vanities, like pulling tourists to supposedly relive a romanticised “dream” of the past. All such practices are needless cruelty and should be banned. It’s time for the world to really move into the future and leave behind motives that are as outdated as their practices.