Speed, Stamina, RNG: What Horse Racing Teaches About Fair Progression in Games

Horse racing is truly a unique sport in every way. First of all, it has been around us for thousands of years. Secondly, it has impacted society in many different ways, and we see horses in art, culture, and even video games. And lastly, horse racing is a sport that teaches us many lessons that we can implement in our daily lives.

As we mentioned, horses were always connected to video games. Just take a look at The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2. These are one of the best games ever made, and they are centered around horses.

But let’s talk more about the real Sport of Kings, and the way it connects to the world of video games. At first glance, video game progression and horse racing might feel like two distant worlds apart, but if you look closely, they are both built with the same principles.

So, if you’re a gamer, here are all the things that horse racing can teach you about fair progression in video games.

How Ability Shapes Outcome

Horse racing is a sport where a great horse and a great jockey are never separated from their skill. There is no shortcut to natural ability, conditioning, and well-practice technique. In other words, you have to earn your spot at the top.

However, horse racing also shows us the more unpredictable side of things. Even the most talented jockey and the horse with the best abilities might end up last in a big race like the Kentucky Derby. Why? Well, horse racing is a complicated sport with a lot of different variables. On top of that, just because the horse comes from a champion bloodline and has potential, it doesn’t mean that it will have success in the world of horse racing.

Both the jockey and the horse still need training, planning, and consistent performance to win.

When you think about it, games that prioritize fair progression lean heavily on this principle. Players should feel rewarded for improving their skills over time, not just for buying upgrades or grinding endlessly.

Horse racing as a sport reminds game-developing companies that pure skill never runs out of style. Just look at the most popular games on Steam right now, most of them were released a decade ago or more (like CS:2), and they still go strong due to high skill requirements and rewards that come with it.

Training and Preparation

Before a horse ever steps onto a racetrack, it goes through months and even years of focused training. Conditioning, diet, practice runs, and even strategy tests. All of that hard work just to appear in a 2-minute race and get all the glory.

People who bet on horse races already know how the system works. Yes, analyzing a horse’s past performances, genetics, and training can help you predict the outcome to a certain point, but even winning horses have bad days and can finish last.

On top of that, with so many variables to consider, picking the right horse is almost impossible, which is why most people go for free race horse picks instead of analyzing on their own.

This is exactly what players expect from a good progression system. The point is that all the training and preparation are rewarded. The same goes for horses, jockeys, and even bettors who analyze races. Everybody is rewarded with a win. This is also the reason for the downfall of many games, especially games with pay-to-win mechanics like Dead by Daylight or Neverwinter.

On one hand, you have people who never put money in the game and develop a certain skill, while others can jump the training phase and buy a performance-enhancing tool that will defeat hard-working players.

Fortunately, there is no such thing in horse racing.

Handicapping and Balancing The Race/Game

We can all agree that one of the most overlooked features in horse racing is handicapping. Some people don’t even know what this means. Handicapping a horse means that they are adding extra weights to a horse that showed incredible performance in the past or carrying less weight. The idea is to punish winners, but to keep races fair and competitive.

Well, game designers have used similar principles when adjusting difficulty, matchmaking, or gear levels. Game progression shouldn’t be the same for a beginner and an advanced player who already has a strong build.

When you get that balance right, players stay engaged longer just because newbies aren’t one-shotted every single session.

Clear Rules and Transparency

Horse racing has survived for so long and works because everyone knows the rules. The lengths, the timing, the penalties, and the class levels – everything is transparent. Owners, jockeys, trainers, bettors, and even fans understand what’s happening and why outcomes matter.

Game progression feels the same. When players understand what they need to do to level up, unlock a skill, or gain an advantage, they trust the system. When everything is confusing like The Foundry-Doom (2016), the game progression system becomes blurry and frustrating.

The Excitement of Unpredictability

If everything seems predictable, nobody would be interested in it. Horse racing is a sport that has survived for thousands of years, and it’s all because of unpredictability, which makes it exciting.

A game progression should feel the same. If everything is calculable, the game quickly becomes boring. But the balance is very important. This unpredictability can quickly decrease the fairness in games, which means that it should be controlled. So, progression doesn’t need to be chaotic, but it should never be totally predictable.

So, we can all agree that game designers can learn a lot from horse racing. Applying some of these principles will make game progression feel more exciting, unpredictable, and vibrant, and all gamers would want that.