Exchange A betting exchange is an online version of a betting post: a place where layers and backers find each other to strike individual bets. Exchanges such as Betfair are controversial: critics say that they encourage corruption, allowing people to lay horses that they know will not win, or that they have the means of stopping from winning. The earliest indication that a horse is injured before a big race is often when the horse’s exchange price lengthens.
Exposed An exposed horse has shown how good he or she is – the implication being, not good enough to win today’s race. An unexposed horse may be about to show form in advance of any previously revealed.
Family A horse’s ancestors in the tail female line. A horse’s half brother or half sister has the same mother; having the same sire does not make horses half siblings.
Filly A female horse, younger than five.
Fizzy A fizzy horse is in an excitable state, or inclined to get that way. Also ‘buzzy’.
Furlong One-eighth of a mile: 220 yards.
Gelding A castrated male horse. Temperamental horses who are unlikely to become stallions but who might be good racers usually get this treatment; most male horses who race at the age of six and above are gelded. In 2003, the gelding Funny Cide won the Kentucky Derby. Geldings are ineligible for the Epsom Derby.
Giving, receiving It is better to receive than to give. Receiving weight from a rival or rivals means carrying less; giving means carrying more.
Going The state of the ground. On British turf courses, the going descriptions are, in descending order of hardness: hard (a word that clerks of the course use rarely), firm, good to firm, good, good to soft (‘soft’ is ‘yielding’ in Ireland), soft, and heavy. It is said of some racehorses that they ‘go on any ground’, but most have preferences. Horses with economical, daisy-cutter actions usually prefer ground that is fast (on the firm side); those who bend their knees and pound the turf go better on, or perhaps are less disadvantaged by, slow, soft ground.
Greek Same as blackleg.
Hand Four inches, a unit of measurement of a horse’s height. The measurement is from the ground to the withers – the top of a horse’s shoulders. Eclipse is generally agreed to have been about 15.3 hands, which was a good height in the mid-eighteenth century but modest by the standards of Thoroughbreds today.
Handicap A race in which horses carry weights according to ratings allotted by the official handicapper. In theory, they should finish in a dead heat. An example from a handy copy of the Racing Post: a five-furlong handicap at Lingfield in which horses rated 72 to 83 took part, won by the 78-rated Zowington. He carried 8st 13lb. A filly called Ocean Blaze finished second; she was rated 76, and therefore carried 2lb less, 8st 11lb.
Handicapper In Britain, the official handicappers work for the British Horseracing Authority, and assign ratings that dictate the weights horses will carry in handicap races. If a horse is a handicapper, he or she specializes in this type of race, not being good enough to run in Pattern (Group) or Listed races. In the US, handicappers are racing enthusiasts who study form.
Horse Apart from the obvious, generic definition, the term implies an ungelded male of five years old and above.
Jockey Before it came exclusively to mean ‘rider’, jockey was a generic term for a racing man.
Lay To lay a horse is to accept the bet of someone backing it. Bookmakers are ‘layers’.
Lead (leg) The leg that advances further. (In horses, the side of the lead foreleg and lead rear leg is usually the same.) The other one hits the ground first. A horse may ‘change legs’ (switching lead legs) while galloping, sometimes when feeling uncomfortable on the ground. Turning left, a horse should lead with the left foreleg; turning right, with the right. A horse turning left but on a right lead is on the ‘wrong’ leg.
Let down A horse that will not ‘let himself down’ is reluctant to gallop properly, perhaps because he finds the ground too hard, or too soft.
Maiden A horse who has not won a race. Or a race for horses who have not yet won a race.
Mare A female horse of five years old and above.
Missed out ‘He missed out the open ditch. ’This expression, which a steeplechase jockey might use, does not mean that the horse ran around the fence to avoid jumping it (a manoeuvre that would result in disqualification), but that he jumped it clumsily.
Nap A tipster’s strongest recommendation.
Near/off side A horse’s near side is the left; the off side is the right. A rider mounts and dismounts on the near side. Eclipse’s white stocking was on his off hind leg.
Nick In breeding, a cross – of, for example, Eclipse with Herod mares, or Eclipse sons or daughters with Herod daughters or sons – that regularly produces good racers.
Nursery A handicap for two-year-olds.
Off/not off Primed, or not, to run to full potential.
On the bridle (or bit)/off the bridle (or bit) A horse on the bridle is coasting along, without effort from the jockey; when the horse is off the bridle, the jockey is working away.
Out of the handicap The top weight in the Grand National carries 11st 10lb; the lowest weight a horse can carry in the race is 10st. Let us say that the top weight has a handicap rating of 165. A horse with 10st on his backwould, in theory, have a rating of 141 – 24lb (1st 10lb) lower. But what of a horse rated 135? He also carries 10st, but should, to have a chance against the others, carry 9st 8lb. He is ‘out of the handicap’.
Pattern The ‘Pattern’ of racing was introduced in the early 1970s. Pattern races are the most prestigious contests, ranked Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3.Winning or placed form in these races, and in the Listed races that follow them in prestige, shows in black type in form guides and sales catalogues. Pinhooking Buying foals with the aim of selling them on as yearlings.
Rough off To give a horse a holiday from training.
Rubbing-house Where horses in Eclipse’s era were saddled, and where they were rubbed down after races or between heats.
Seller After a selling race, the winner is sold at auction, and other runners may also be bought.
Stud A stallion; more commonly, a farm with horses for breeding. A stud may house broodmares only.
Stuffy A stuffy horse needs lots of exercise to get fit.
Tail male, tail female Respectively, the top and bottom lines in pedigrees. The top line ascends through the sire to his sire (the grandsire), and through the grandsire’s sire, and so on; the bottom line ascends through the dam to her dam (the granddam), and through the granddam’s dam, and so on.
Thoroughbred A horse whose breeding satisfies the criteria of compilers of stud books.
Tote The Tote runs the Totalisator, a pool betting system known in France and the US as the Pari-mutuel. The UK and Ireland are unusual among racing countries in having a tote as well as bookmakers. France, the US, and Japan are among the nations with tote monopolies; Australia has bookmakers oncourse; only some states license them elsewhere. The Tote (the company) is state-owned; at the time of writing, plans to sell it are on the shelf.
Bibliography
Books
Eclipse and O’Kelly
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_______ The Minor Jockey Club: Or a Sketch of the Manners of the Greeks(R. Farnham, 1792)
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_______ Sporting Anecdotes (Thomas Hurst, J. Harris, J.Wheble, 1804)
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_______ George Stubbs, Painter. Catalogue Raisonné (Yale, 2007)
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_______ Thoroughbreds of the Crown (Genesis Publications, 1999)
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Willett, Peter, The Classic Racehorse (Stanley Paul, 1981)
_______ A History of the General Stud Book (Weatherbys, 1991)
_______ The Story of Tattersalls (Stanley Paul, 1987)
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Charlotte Hayes
Anon., Nocturnal Revels (M. Goadby, 1779)
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_______ Wits, Wenchers and Wantons (Robert Hale, 1986)
_______ and Joy Wotton, Private Vices – Public Virtues (Robert Hale, 1995)
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