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For convenience all racehorses in the northern hemisphere take their birthdays from 1 January. In the southern hemisphere the corresponding date is 1 August. Until the end of the year in which it is born a horse is known as a foal. In the next year it is known as a yearling. In the year after that it is called a two-year-old, then a three-year-old and so on.
After the age of six a horse may be described as aged, though the term is not much used nowadays.
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All-Weather also AWT - for All-Weather Track |
This term was coined to describe tracks built for racing on artificial surfaces, as distinct from racing on turf. The prime reason they were built was to try to ensure that when National Hunt (jumps) racing had to be cancelled because of the effects on the turf of bad winter weather, which sometimes led to all racing being cancelled for weeks on end, there would be some sort of racing to keep betting going in the off-course betting shops. There are now three racecourses in England that have racing on all-weather surfaces. They are Lingfield Park, which is in the county of Surrey and a few miles east of Gatwick Airport; Southwell, in Nottinghamshire, and Wolverhampton in Staffordshire - in the area known from the days of "smokestack" industries as the Black Country. These three courses continue to race on turf. Lingfield Park's Flat racing on turf has as its most important races of the year the long-established Derby Trial and the Oaks Trial. Steeplechasing and hurdle racing also continue there though such racing has been reduced by transferring fixtures to Folkestone. Flat racing and National Hunt racing continue on the turf courses at Southwell but there is no longer Flat racing on turf at Wolverhampton, where National Hunt racing was in abeyance for a while until problems with the turf were rectified. Ron Muddle and his son Richard (once a Flat-race jockey), were the prime movers in the development of all-weather racing at all three courses but their interests at Southwell and Wolverhampton were taken over by Arena Leisure who had acquired Lingfield Park from successors to the Muddles. Therefore Arena Leisure now (autumn 1999) have a monopoly on all-weather racing in Britain. Adding into consideration the meetings at their other racecourses Arena Leisure control about 18% of the British fixture list. Arena Leisure is also proposing to build an all-weather track in the eastern suburbs of London (an area in which there are no racecourses at all, but for which three are proposed by different interests) and yet another somewhere between Manchester and Leeds. For Middleham trainers a proposal to build a new all-weather course at High Gosforth Park, Newcastle, separate from the existing racecourse there is good news. Newcastle is a more or less local track to Middleham and travelling will thus be reduced. The British Horseracing Board agreed to accept proposals for new racecourses and set 31 August 1999 as the cut-off date for the submission of definite plans. The exercise revealed that there are plans for eight new racecourses, nearly all of them AWTs. Those backing the revival of another course hoped to be allowed to submit their plans a few days after the deadline. It seems the proposal most likely to succeed will be for one of the all-weather courses in east London, with Newcastle favoured too. Perhaps three new all-weather tracks will be built. Racing on the all-weather is Flat racing only. There used to be some racing over hurdles but that was abandoned because falls at the hurdles caused too many injuries and fatalities to the horses. Of the 46 meetings due to be run on the all-weather track at Wolverhampton in 1999 twenty-four will be run on Saturdays, mostly in the evenings under floodlights. Wolverhampton is the only course in Britain to have floodlit racing. The all-weather track at Wolverhampton was not built primarily to provide fodder for betting shops but to tap a new leisure market. The artificial surface at Lingfield Park is called "Equitrack". At Southwell and Wolverhampton the surface is "Fibresand", which is manufactured not far from those courses. There are many different brands of artificial surfaces in use by trainers. For instance the seven furlongs' straight all-weather gallop on the Low Moor at Middleham is of "Eurotrack", while the newer, right-handed, one and a half miles' all-weather track on the High Moor is "Cushion Track". As to keeping betting going in betting shops: turnover is essential to the companies that own these shops because it is from turnover they make their profits. There is a levy on betting shop turnover (punters pay 9% tax), though there is no tax on betting at racecourses in Britain. The government retains most of the money levied from betting shops but some is retained by the Horserace Betting Levy Board, which returns a good deal of its share to racing - and that's where the racing authorities saw the point of all-weather racing. The racing ability of the horses that compete on the all-weather is not great but the overall quality is improving slowly as this type of racing is becoming more widely accepted. Prize money for all-weather racing is not great, either. However, some people prefer to run their horses for the money at stake at the three all-weather courses rather than race them over hurdles, where the risk of injury is greater. There is some concern that this tendency is depleting the pool of horses available to run under National Hunt rules.
Can all-weather racing really take place in all weathers? No. Occasionally falling snow can be a hazard and at least one of the earliest scheduled all-weather race meetings in England had to be cancelled because of a type of weather they could do nothing about - fog!
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Used to describe the arm-waving action of a steeplechase jockey trying to regain his balance after his mount has made a mistake or, sometimes, just the semblance of a mistake in jumping.
It would be undiplomatic to remind a jockey that he called a cab because the phrase is taken to imply he is losing his nerve and, so, ought to be thinking of handing in his licence and retiring.
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Against the Collar |
This phrase means "uphill". The imagery is of a carthorse pulling a load uphill. Such a horse would be straining against its collar as it worked.
Collar is also old slang for hard work.
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Used of a stallion who serves mares in both the northern and southern hemispheres in the same twelve-month period. Such a stallion is shuttled back and forth between the two hemispheres for as long as people will pay to send mares to him and for as long as he can stand the workload. Dual hemisphering is a great way of doubling the productivity of and, therefore, the income from a stallion. Up to a few years ago stallions served the mares booked to them in a season lasting about four months - and did nothing the rest of the time. The northern hemisphere covering (of mares by a stallion) season ends in mid-June. The gestation period in a racehorse is eleven months. If the northern hemisphere covering season went on beyond June foals would be born too late in the following year. When such late foals came to race they would be at a severe disadvantage, especially early in their careers, with rivals born in the same year. Dual hemisphering started with stallions normally based in Ireland being sent to Australia and New Zealand. Then stallions were sent there from USA and, later, Japan. Later still shuttle stallions began to be sent from the southern to the northern hemisphere. The stallions must be travelled back and forth. Artificial insemination of racehorse mares is not countenanced by any stud book authority, so mating has to be natural. With other breeds of horses semen is often sent in the post.
It is only in recent years that dual hemisphering has become feasible due to advances in veterinary medicine and in transport.
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See under Going, below. (Return to the top of the page)
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The going is the state of the ground on which horses race. They say a good horse can go on any ground and that, in a particular race, "It's the same for them all" but the form of most horses is affected to a greater or lesser degree by the state of the going. A horse's conformation (the way he's built) affects his action, which will be best suited by a certain state of the racing surface. For racing on turf there are seven terms used to describe the range of states of the going. The wettest, muddiest ground on which racing takes place is called heavy. The next softest is called soft. Then there is good to soft. Slow ground comes somewhere in this part of the range of descriptions of the going. In the middle of the range is good going. On the other side of good there is good to firm, then firm then hard going. Fast ground comes somewhere in this part of the range of descriptions of the going. Pronouncements about the state of the going at racecourses can lead to sharp disagreements. Trainers sometimes complain they have been misled by descriptions of the state of the going. Conclusions about the state of the going are a matter of assessment and are far from being an exact science, though a measuring device known as a penetrometer is used in France. There is no such device in Britain, though some have been researched in recent years. In Britain, if there has to be an inspection of a course to see whether it is safe to race, the assessment is done by a group of people. Senior jockeys will be included in the group if they are present at the course at the time of the inspection. Definite conclusions about the state of the going can often be reached from a study of race times at a meeting but, of course, those can only be made after racing has taken place - too late for many purposes. After the first race at a meeting at which the state of the going is a concern to various people the jockeys that rode in the race are anxiously questioned. They will say things like "It's like a bog", "They are going in up to their hocks", "It's soft but they're going through it", "It's sticky", "It's gluey" or "It's like porridge", "It's dead", "It's a bit on the slow side". Sometimes heard is "It's perfect racing ground; there's nothing wrong with it". The descriptions continue "It's definitely on the fast side of good", "It's pretty quick out there", "There's jar in the ground", "It's like a road" or "It's like concrete".
The going on the three all-weather tracks is almost always given as "Standard" and sometimes as "Slow".
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A horse should have four of these, one at each corner. Someone who owns a quarter share in a horse owns a leg in the animal. Each of the owners will say "I own a leg in a racehorse, though I don't know which one". The owners are apt to give this old joke more airings than the horse. A horse gets a leg or has a leg when it sustains a leg injury severe enough to keep it out of training and racing, for months rather than weeks and, maybe, forever. A racehorse is described as being on the leg or just leggy when he/she is tall and gangly and apparently too long-legged in proportion to the size of its body. It is implied that such a horse will "let down" to what may be its mature, rather stockier appearance. A steeplechaser is said to find a leg when he somehow saves himself and stays on his feet when apparently about to fall. Leg is an old-fashioned and derogatory name for a racecourse bookmaker. The term derives from "blackleg". There is a book called The Art of Legging which is regularly reissued. A leg is an element in any combination of bets or races, etc. For instance the races called the Cambridgeshire and the Cesarewitch are still known as the autumn double and either race is one leg of the double. To have the legs of is to be faster than. When a jockey, exercise rider or anyone else is legged up he/she is helped to mount by someone who grasps the rider's (proferred) shin and lifts. Instances of riders being thrown right over the horse are rare. A horse is said to change legs when he or she hesitates at the gallop and begins the cycle of his or her stride with a different leg than used for the previous stride. A horse usually leads with the left (near side) leg.
The slight but perceptible hesitation involved in changing legs in a race can cost a horse his or her winning chance.
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A maiden race is for horses that have not won a race. By definition the winner of a maiden race is no longer a maiden and is said to have lost its maiden status, a good thing in a racehorse.
A horse qualified to run in a maiden race may be described as a maiden. In such a case the horse's sex is irrelevant.
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A morning glory is a racehorse that shows great ability on the home gallops when working in the morning, but who cannot or will not reproduce that apparent ability where and when it counts - on the racecourse in the afternoon.
The term is, of course, disparaging.
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A punter is someone who bets. The term is acceptable within racing but outside has disrespectful connotations as describing a foolish person who is just waiting to have their money taken from them.
Though they have no representation in the councils of racing in Britain punters supply the greatest single tranche of the money that funds it. This money is obtained as a portion of the 9% tax on punter's winnings in the approximately 8,500 betting shops in Britain.
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This is a term beloved of fantasists, jokers and those who know nothing of modern racing. A ringer is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "U.S. slang. A horse or other competitor fraudulently substituted for another in a race or other sporting activity; one who engages in a fraud of this kind." The dictionary dates the use of ringer in the racing sense to 1890. But the term gained a big boost in Britain in the mid-1920s from the very popular play and novel The Ringer by Edgar Wallace (and from at least three later films under various names) in which "A criminal master of disguise threatens to kill a much more despicable criminal at an appointed hour ........ and does so despite police protection." Nowadays the checks on horses going into training and entering racecourses are many and stringent. All horses have their blood types analysed and recorded when young and they have passports which are much more detailed than humans'. The passports are checked by veterinary surgeons at all racecourses against the animal presented. From 1999 all foals are having microchips implanted in the neck area so that in a few years the identification of horses at racecourses will be done by an electronic device, which will read codes programmed into the microchips. DNA testing would be another way to establish whether a horse was a ringer but perhaps the best line of defence is the last line - the bookmakers. It is the bookies who would be the target of any ringer operation so they have a strong vested interest in not being caught out. To try to be sure of winning his race a ringer would only be entered in a rather low-class event, but such races do not attract a lot of betting. Thus conspirators are apt to give the game away by trying to place too much money on the ringer. In that case the bookies would immediately become suspicions and reduce the odds drastically. If money were continuously bet in unexpectedly large volumes on the same horse the bookies would be likely to wipe the odds off their boards and stop betting. If and when any ringer won a race the payment of all bets on that race would be suspended pending investigations. There would not be much point in attempting a coup through betting shops. Staff are under orders to refuse or query with their employers' head office any unusually-large bets. Even combination bets or a lot of small bets would not escape notice because relevant information about all transactions at branch offices is automatically relayed to headquarters and collated on computers. Any heavily-backed horse is noticed at once. At all racecourses the ring inspectors, often ex-police officers, who are on duty at every race meeting will be informed and they and the bookies will inform the Jockey Club of what are called 'unusual betting patterns'. If something is wrong the conspirators will be found out. The Oxford English Dictionary says nothing about a horse who is the reverse of a ringer, that is a bad horse misleadingly planted in a racing stable under the name of a good one. The stable staff will be asked by outsiders about all new horses and it is hoped they will freely and repeatedly say that the 'reverse ringer' is not much good; the idea being that punters and agents acting for bookmakers will lose any initial interest they had in the horse. Then when 'the day' comes a good horse running under its own name will be substituted for the deliberately mis-named poor horse and will, the planners hope, trot up at long odds with lots of money bet on him. The best-known example of this sort of exploit was the 'Gay Future Affair' in which the racehorse Gay Future was 'plotted-up' for a hurdle race at Cartmel at the Late Summer Bank Holiday weekend in 1974. The real Gay Future was in training with one of the best professional trainers in Ireland. The supposed Gay Future was in training in Scotland with a permit holder (an amateur trainer of horses racing under National Hunt Rules only - this particular permit holder was a stockbroker). Neither horse had ever run in a race.
Gay Future, the real Gay Future, won the Cartmel race easily but only some bookmakers paid out. The rest complained and the police were asked to investigate. At Preston Crown Court some of those involved in the attempted coup were convicted of conspiring to cheat and defraud bookmakers (for their parts in contriving the artificially long odds of 10/1).
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A male horse is called a colt until he reaches the age of five, when he is known as a horse. When the animal has been used at stud he is known as a stallion irrespective of age. All the above are referred to as "entire". A castrated horse of any age is known as a gelding.
A female horse is called a filly until she reaches the age of five, when she is known as a mare. She would also be called a mare from the time she was mated with a stallion, irrespective of her age.
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See under Dual Hemisphering, above. (Return to the top of the page)
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See under Going, above. (Return to the top of the page)
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A horse wins a race turning handsprings when he wins very easily. The imagery is of a circus acrobat turning handsprings as if in fun.
Other terms used to describe an easy win include 'pulling a bus', 'pulling a tram', 'by a street', 'by a mile', 'by a country mile', 'won (by) a minute' or even 'won ten minutes', 'with his head in his chest', 'in a hack canter', 'in a common canter', 'trotted up', 'skated up', 'sluiced up', 'whizzed up', 'without breaking sweat', etc, etc.
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