Four years ago, Joel Funk walked into his first yearling sale at Keeneland and saw nearly $400 million change hands in less than two weeks. Billionaires, celebrities, and global power brokers gathered in Lexington, Ky., bidding on bloodstock. When others were talking recession, Funk was talking opportunity.

“I was just blown away,” Funk said. “You want to get the wealthiest people in the world in a room, have a horse sale.”

The sport of horse racing might have started with the simple question of whose horse is fastest, but centuries of such challenges have morphed that humble query into a full-fledged industry, replete with stories of great horses and the humans behind them. Racing reflects the world it inhabits, a mirror for the societal and economic conflicts playing out in the background.