Trivia about Thoroughbred Racing

It all started when English Knights returned from crusades with swift Arab horses. High endurance and speedy horses were products of bred English mares and Arab horses.
During the reign of Queen Anne, horse racing became a professional sport and a public obsession. Elites, nobles and riches gather all together in a racecourse to watch races and wager. During that time, horse racing, horse breeding and horse owning were very profitable. With the rapid expansion of the sport arises the need for a central governing authority. Since 1814, five races for three-year-old horses have been designated as "classics." Three races, open to male horses (colts) and female horses (fillies), make up the English Triple Crown: the Two Thousand Guineas Stakes, run over one mile at Newmarket Racecourse in Newmarket, Suffolk, the Epsom Derby, run over one and a half miles at Epsom Downs Racecourse in Epsom, Surrey; the St. Leger Stakes, run over one mile, six furlongs and 132 yards at Town Moor in Doncaster, Yorkshire.
During early 1800’s, the only thoroughbred that allow to race were those listed in the General Stud book. A thoroughbred horse race meant racing between thoroughbreds whose pedigree is verified and can be traced back to the three original stallions. These stallions were the Byerley Turk, foaled c.1679; the Darley Arabian, foaled c.1700; and the Godolphin Arabian, foaled c.1724.