Thanks to Dan Clarke for reminding me about Gallop Racer, a horse racing game series by Tecmo. While the series has been released on every platform you can think of (arcade, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, iOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch), my first experience was on arcade (above).
In Gallop Racer, you play as a jockey-of-all-trades as you buy horses to train, race and breed. It’s up to you to pick the right horse for the right race in order to win and earn more money to buy more horses, breed them, and so on. Licensing issues meant Tecmo couldn’t use real names for breeds and courses but they did their best to make the look as close to the real thing as possible.
I was never good enough to get much out of my 1 credit at the arcade but it’s good to know the game is available on platforms I own or otherwise have direct access to should I get the urge to play again.
(h/t Dan)