At the turn of the century, competitive horse racing was the exclusive purview of the wealthy. Racing horses were simply too expensive for the average American, and few would have had the leisure time to train and race them anyway. The only animals most citizens could afford were dogs, cats, talking pigs, and goats, but none of these animals could sate their New World lust for racing.
Enter: the monkey.
Fig. 3 – The market for tiny helmets exploded in the early 1900s
Monkeys were first introduced to America in 1870, by traveling Brazilian samba instructors, who used them as partners in their sidewalk demonstrations. It didn’t take long for circus promoters to discover the tiny, furry, people-like animals, and they began to pop up in demonstrations and foot races. From there, it was hardly a leap to use them as jockeys, and monkey-goat racing was born. Finally, the Sport of Kings was accessible to the working man (though, colloquially, monkey-goat racing was known as “The Sport of Disgraced Viscounts”).
[Via Boing-Boing]
