Horse racing is an important part of the culture of many countries, states, cities and counties across the globe. The way horses are inserted within each culture can vary a lot. Rural communities in Western society have a role for horses that is portrayed on many different TV series.
Ranking the best TV Series can be a complex task. The main reason is simple: the way horses are inserted within a society can vary a lot.
Some countries live horse racing in a very intense way, including the UK, The US and Australia. Breeding horses is a tradition in itself, while other countries live horse racing as just some occasional events.
The more important these events are to society, the better the quality of the art generated around them.
British society has elegant and prestigious horse racing events that are heavily associated with the royal family, in fact, many foreigners associate the biggest horse racing events UK promotes with the recently deceased HM Queen Elisabeth.
Some famous TV Series are all about horses like Luck, featuring Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Farina, and are a symbol of horse racing in pop culture.
Interestingly, however, some TV Series feature horse racing marginally, such as the British TV Series The Crown. The late Princess Margaret, in a scene, when she was around 20, was bored with the royal social circles, and asked a friend to be introduced to ‘normal people’. When asked what that meant precisely, her answer was ‘Doesn’t own land, doesn’t breed horses, doesn’t know my mother!’.
The answer of Princess Margaret reflects how horse racing and breeding have been deeply immersed for centuries in the culture of the royal social circles.
Channel Four’s Jockey School is another good example of a TV Series that is all about horse racing, and how this passion is a universe in itself, a culture that can become many different careers that can be incredibly fulfilling to those that are infatuated with it from an early age, quite like it happens with sports like football, although the majestic animals and their love for humans make it hard to compare both sports.
Gambling certainly is a common aspect of ball sports and horse racing which has also been featured in great TV Series such as Horseplayers, featuring Christian Hellmers and Matt Bernier.
The above-mentioned TV Series Luck also features some aspects of horse racing betting.
Some exotic TV Series about other countries can also be quite interesting as they live horse racing in a completely different way. Mongolia is among the most exotic countries in the world and frequently ranks among the most unknown countries with a big territory on several kinds of research. People often have no idea that horse fighting is an integral part of Mongolian culture.
Marco Polo is a TV Series that shows the incredible traditions of the Mongolian people around horses, both racing and fighting.
The Golden Horse of Turkmenistan is one of the most beautiful horse breeds in the world and a national pride, which can be seen in interesting documentaries like “The Queen of Turkmenistan”.
These last very exotic examples illustrate how most countries celebrate horse racing or horse breeding in some way.
Summary: Best Horse Racing TV Series Ever Made
01) Luck (US): The TV Series featuring Dustin Hoffman is probably the best if we consider that it features several different characters in the horse racing world, including jockeys, breeders, gamblers and events in general. Unfortunately, it was canceled due to concerns about how the animals were being traded during the shooting of the TV Series.
02) Jockey School (UK): The TV Series is incredible because it shows one of the strongest cultural elements behind the passion for horse racing: how jockeys fall in love with the animals from a very young age and pursue this elegant and beautiful career.
03) Thoroughbred (US): The short-lived TV Series from 1990 can be considered an American counterpart to this young passion for horses that can shape lives and careers around the multiple cultural and business activities around horse racing. The interesting part of the TV Series was the focus on the passion of a young girl, not a boy, in a time when the universe of horse racing was a lot more associated with men than women than it is today.