Horse races are a long-held tradition in many cultures. The sport combines a huge amount of physical effort by the horses with a high degree of skill and insight from the jockey. The result is a thrilling spectacle that evokes images of a medieval knight fighting the dragon on his steed.

But there is another side to the horse racing story that is less visible than the snazzy costumes and glitzy television coverage. In recent years, research has shown that when journalists cover elections by focusing on the competitive nature of who’s winning and losing instead of policy issues — what’s known as horse race reporting — voters, candidates, and the news industry itself suffer.

One of the most significant problems is that it gives an advantage to candidates who have a better chance of winning, such as Republicans and Democrats. In addition, it hurts third-party candidates and can mislead voters. These problems have been exacerbated by a growing trend in journalism called probabilistic forecasting, which aggregates opinion poll data to present the likelihood that a candidate will win.

This method of reporting has become more popular as it allows journalists to present more conclusive data than just who is ahead and behind. But the problem is that it has shifted the focus of the news from policy to who has the best chances of winning, and thus it distorts what people know and believe about an election.

In fact, the horse race model may be a big reason why politics in America seems to have become so chaotic and partisan. The mud-slinging, name-calling and attack ads have all made it much harder to keep the actual issues that matter at the forefront of people’s minds.

The horse race model has also impacted how we treat racing, with the industry now losing fans, revenue, race days and entries. Even though it generates billions in economic activity, a recent study revealed that almost none of the profits reach the horse breeders and trainers who depend on the sport to support their families.

For example, in order to get the most out of their horses, trainers often push them to their limits, even when it jeopardizes their health. Some of these horses will bleed from their lungs after running, a condition known as exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage. To mitigate this, trainers frequently give their horses cocktails of legal and illegal drugs that mask injuries and enhance performance.

The result is that horses are becoming increasingly more prone to injury, and in some cases even to death. But, as racing fans have grown more aware of the dark side of the sport, some trainers and breeders have begun to make changes. The improvement has been slow, but growing awareness and public pressure have prompted some of the larger race tracks to restrict the use of drugs and reduce the length of races, which can help prevent injuries and breakdowns. In addition, groups like PETA have pushed for more scrutiny of breeding practices, the transport of injured horses to slaughter and the treatment of slaughterhouse workers.