Why are horses legs taped for a race?

Answer 1

The legs are taped because when horses are running their back legs come up and will sometimes clip the back of their front legs. So to prevent injury they tape legs.

Taping (rundown bandages) the back legs prevents injury to the back of the ankle. Rundown injuries are caused as the horse tires which results in the back of the ankle and sometimes fetlock being abraded by the track surface if it is not taped.