There’s a lot made of what the most popular sport on the planet is with the common consensus being that it is soccer. There are however many people that disagree and point to the NFL as the most-watched and most-loved sports league on the planet. That’s before we even mention the billion or so people who regularly tune in to watch cricket.

One sport that is always overlooked in this debate is horse racing and it really shouldn’t be. Whilst it can’t quite claim the same number of weekly viewers as sports like soccer and football it does have the longest history of any sport on the planet.

Horse racing has been enjoyed practically since the domestication of the animals some 6,000 years ago. It has been enjoyed in some shape or form from Ancient Greece to the Romans, through the medieval period and into today where fans from all over the world keep an eye on the Kentucky Derby odds and the Grand National alike.

It’s somewhat surprising then that there aren’t the same amount of games centred on horse racing as other sports. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t good horse racing games though, it just means that we have to focus on quality rather than quantity.

Speaking of which, let’s get down to business and profile some of the best horse racing games to have ever been released…

The Best Horse Racing Video Games

8. Winning Post 7 Maximum 2007

Developed and published by Koei, Winning Post 7 Maximum 2007 was the sequel to the original and was released on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, 17 years ago – wow does that make us feel old!

This single-player game was full of thrills and spills and was eminently playable. Would it stand up to standard today? Perhaps not, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that it was a great game in its day.

7. Breeders Cup World Thoroughbred Championships

An even older game this time that was released onto the Xbox and PlayStation 2 back in 2005. Whilst it was graphically inferior to the previous game it did have more features and more progression which made it more engaging to play. Being officially licensed by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Breeders Cup Limited gave it an element of realism that other games just didn’t have.

6. Derby Owners Club

What is this? A time machine? Yes that’s right we’re going further back in time now, all the way to 1999 way before social media and just before the Millennium Bug! In this game you could play the role of breeder, trainer, jockey and owner as you took a horse from birth all the way to ultimate horse racing glory. This game, developed by Sega was an absolute classic and needs to be brought back!

5. Starters Orders

Okay so there are a lot of releases in this title and whilst we could easily fill up this article naming them all it wouldn’t be fair on other games. Suffice it to say that this gaming title has been responsible for some of the best horse racing video games of all-time. Like Derby Owners Club it is a simulation game, but it has so much more detail which allows for a far greater level of immersion. If you’re at a loose end and looking for a game to play, go download the latest release in this series.

4. Melbourne Cup Challenge

This game is so old that in its description where it lists the platforms it can be played on it uses the words ‘Personal Computer’. Do not let that put you off though, Melbourne Cup Challenge – released in 2006 – is a great simulation game based on, you guessed it, the Melbourne Cup.

3. G1 Jockey 4 2007

The noughties were somewhat of a Golden Age for horse racing simulation games with this title being released just a year after Melbourne Cup Challenge. There’s not much more that can be said about this game other than, you should definitely play it!

2. Gallop Racer

Originally intended as an arcade game by developer Tecmo, this title was released on the PlayStation 2 and PC in 2006 and almost immediately developed cult status. It’s such an enjoyable game to play and in another world might have been top of this list…

1. Red Dead Redemption 2

There’s an argument that this is the greatest game of all-time and in our opinion, that argument is wholly justified. Whilst it isn’t explicitly a horse racing game, it does involve a hell of a lot of riding about on a horse and actual horse races.

In fact it’s the only game on this list that will leave you absolutely obsessed with horses, so for that reason it’s our Number One.