What do horses feel at the Kentucky Derby? Mostly fear and pain

US audiences will be sold a tale of horses battling for glory and adulation at Churchill Downs. But the actual story is far more disturbing

For a horse, winning means nothing - they don't even understand the concept. Yet every May US horse racing sells a narrative to draw in the public. The story goes that a group of young horses are locked in gritty pursuit of Triple Crown glory. But trophies, money and adulation are all human-made abstractions. The main concern for a horse is survival.

To be clear, what people think horses' feel is not the same as what the horses themselves experience. This is what Dr Stephen Peters, a neuroscientist known for his work with both humans and horses, calls anthropomorphism: attributing human characteristics to an animal.

Elizabeth Banicki worked for two decades as an exercise rider in the horse racing industry.