'Suspense' in slowest horse race wins new fans in Japan

OBIHIRO, Japan — Speed is not everything at one racecourse in Japan, where the unpredictable stop-and-start drama of the world's slowest horse race has drawn new fans eager to bet on their sturdy favorite.

A fanfare plays, the gates flip open and they are off — but at a plod rather than a gallop, pulling heavy sleighs in a tradition that harks back more than a century.

The Banei Keiba races are held in Obihiro, a city in northern Japan's Hokkaido, where spectators cheer on the muscular workhorses moving at the pace of a brisk human walk.