Smugs and Bets went to a steeplechase. There, Bets observed that the race track had 5 lanes.

Now, Bets as always succeeds in framing a toughie based on a real life situation. He asks Smugs:

“Suppose we had 25 horses out of which the fastest three need to be decided. Can you find the minimum number of races required to do so?

Before you suggest the obvious solution let me emphasize that in any race only the rankings of the horses and not their timings could be known.” 

Could you help solve this for Smugs?