Horse racing

A jockey's equipment in­cludes a saddle and, under it, the weight cloth in which strips of lead are placed to ad­just the weight carried, the number cloth, a whip, gog­gles, and crash helmet. This horse is wearing blinkers to help his concentration.

Race horses gallop into the first turn of the track as the crouching jockeys manoeuvre for position. Thousands of excited racing fans cheer for their favourite horses.

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Horse racing is a popular sport based on the speed of horses and the skill of jockeys. Horse races have been held since ancient times, and millions of people throughout the world enjoy them today. Racing fans thrill to the sight of colourfully dressed jockeys on sleek horses galloping around a track toward the winning post.

One of the features of horse racing is the chance to win money by betting on horses to be placed, that is, to finish first, second, third, or fourth, depending on the number of runners. People may also try various combi­nations of bets.

There are two main kinds of horse racing that are popular throughout the world. In one kind, jockeys ride horses round flat courses. Such races are called flat races. The other kind of racing is called steeplechasing and hurdling, known in the United Kingdom collectively as National Hunt racing. Point-to-point racing is a type of steeplechase for amateur riders. In steeplechasing, horses ridden by jockeys race over obstacles.

Race horses

Most race horses are thoroughbreds- that is, horses whose ancestry can be traced back to any of three Arab stallions. One of these stallions, named the Byerly Turk, was taken to England in the late 1600's. The other two, called the Darley Arab and the Godolphin Barb, were taken there in the early 1700's. Arab horses are known for their speed, and these three stallions were carefully bred with English mares to produce swift, strong race horses.

Thoroughbreds weigh from 450 to 545 kilograms. They stand from 155 to 165 centimetres tall from the ground to the withers, the highest part of a horse's back.

Thoroughbreds are not allowed to race until they are 2 years old. In the Northern Hemisphere, the age of a thoroughbred is automatically calculated from January 1 of the year in which it is born. Thus, all thoroughbreds born during the same year have the same birthday. This method of determining age simplifies the basic group­ing of race horses according to age. Most thorough­breds that race are 2, 3,4, or 5 years old. Breeding pro­grammes are planned so that the horses are born early in the year. In the Southern Hemisphere, the age of a thoroughbred is calculated from August 1.

Various terms are used to classify thoroughbreds ac­cording to age and sex. A newborn thoroughbred is called a foal until its first birthday, when it becomes a yearling. A male is a colt from its second birthday until it reaches the age of 5. It is then called a horse. A female is a filly from the age of 2 until the age of 5, when it be­comes a mare. A male parent is a sire, and a female par­ent is a dam. A male horse that has been castrated is called & gelding.

Jockeys

Jockeys control the horses in a race. The skill of a jockey in handling a horse can determine whether the horse wins the race.

Horses are required to carry a certain weight in races. In flat racing, jockeys are small. The horses usually carry weights of between 44 and 63 kilograms, so the lighter a jockey is, the more rides he or she is likely to get. A young jockey learning his profession under the care of a trainer is called an apprentice. Apprentices can claim a weight allowance to make up for their inexperience. In the United Kingdom the allowance can be 3 kilograms until they have ridden 10 winners, 2 kilograms for up to 50 winners, and 1 a kilograms until they have ridden 75 winners. The weight that each horse carries in a race is carefully controlled according to the rules applying to that particular event.

A jockey's equipment includes a saddle, a whip, boots, a safety helmet, and a special jacket and cap. The jacket and cap, called silks, are provided by the owner of the horse. The colours and the colour arrangement of silks identify the owner. Each owner's silks differ from those of other owners. Silks are also called colours.

At the races

Types of horse races. Most horse races are run over distances ranging from 1.2 to 4 kilometres. How­ever, the course of the famous Grand National steeple­chase race, held near Liverpool, in England, is 7.2 kilo­metres long. The distances of horse races are also expressed in units called furlongs. A furlong equals 201 metres.

The owners of the horses that finish first, second, and third in a race receive prize money. Prize money deter­mines the many different types of races throughout the world. Races include sweepstakes, plates, and purses. Within these divisions are selling and claiming races, and also weight-for-age and handicap races.

A sweepstake is a race in which the prize money, or part of it, comes from the owners of the horses entered. It is made up of fees, forfeits, and other subscriptions, and sometimes also from other sources. All this money is added together and distributed among the first three prize-winners, with the owner of the first horse past the post receiving the largest share.

Most famous horse races are sweepstakes. They in­clude the Epsom Derby in England, the Irish Sweeps Derby in Ireland, the Melbourne Cup in Australia, and the Kentucky Derby in the United States.

A plate is a race that guarantees prizes of a definite value to the winners. The money comes from the race fund of that particular course. If contributions from the horses' owners fall short of the guaranteed sum, the race fund has to make up the difference.

A purse is a race in which the whole of the prize money is put up by the race course. The owners make no contribution at all.

Selling races are run by the lowest types of horses. As soon as the race is over, the winner is put up for sale by auction. In a claiming race, any runner can be "claimed" after the race. That is, it can be bought by another owner for a previously advertised amount.

Within the different distance categories in both flat racing and jumping there are various kinds of restric­tions. The top contests in most countries are weight-for- age races. In these, the weights carried by each runner are dictated by its age. A young horse will carry less weight than older and stronger rivals. In such races a concession is also made to fillies (females under five years old), which are a little weaker than their male counterparts. In some other races the weights to be car­ried depend upon certain conditions, such as the quality of previous races won.

In a handicap race, the weight carried by each indi­vidual horse is adjusted by an official handicapper. His purpose is to give each runner an equal chance of win­ning. Weight is added by inserting flat lead weights into pockets in a piece of cloth called a weight doth.

The racecourse. Racecourses vary from country to country in shape, composition, and size. In Great Britain, for example, no two of more than 60 racecourses are identical. Some are left-handed, some right-handed, and some courses are quite straight. Some courses are flat, some undulate. Since 1989, Britain has had two all- weather courses where racing takes place on a sand- based artificial surface. These are at Lingfield Park in Surrey and at Southwell in Nottinghamshire. All other British courses have a grass surface, known as the turf in racing circles. Some of these courses are quite small, others are vast. This variety obtains also in Australia and the other four main European racing countries—France, Germany, Ireland, and Italy. Far Eastern courses, such as Fuchu in Tokyo, resemble American courses. These tend to be flat, left-handed, and oval, and most of them have a dirt surface.

Betting. There are two basic ways of betting on horses: with a totalizator or with a bookmaker, although methods and habits vary from country to country. The totalizator ("Tote") system, also called pari-mutuel, means that all the money wagered on horses to win a race is combined in a fund called a pooI. After the race, the money in the pool is divided among all those who have backed the winner. The odds (amount expressed as a ratio) are based on the proportion of money in the pool that was placed on the winning horse, after deductions have been made for administrative costs and, in most countries, for the racecourse and general financing of the sport.

A punter (person who bets) has various types of bets to choose from. He or she may bet on a horse to win or to be placed. Betting on a horse to win and to be placed is called betting each way. In Britain, a bet on either of two particular horses to finish first and second is called a forecast.

After the race, the dividend (return) is declared. This includes the stake money {the amount originally wa­gered). If a punter won 5 British pounds after putting a pound bet on a horse, that means the punter would have made a profit of 4 pounds, the extra  pound being the stake money. The odds in that case could be ex­pressed as 4 to 1.

In the United States, the major racecourses use the totalizator system of betting. In most countries the total­izator is the only betting system. Examples include Hong Kong and Japan where the amounts of money wagered every day are huge compared with Europe. But in Aus­tralia, Great Britain, India, and Ireland, a punter may also bet with a bookmaker (popularly known as a bookie). Bookmakers set the odds and accept bets. They try to set odds that enable them to make a profit after paying the winning punters. Some bookmakers operate from offices from which they take punters' bets in person or by telephone. Others work from betting shops located in main shopping areas. And still others operate on the racecourse itself. In Australia and India, bookmakers are found only on the racecourse.

A bookmaker's odds get longer or shorter depending on the amount of money bet on each horse. The punter may bet at the odds that the bookmaker is showing at the time the bet is made, or else at the starting price (SP), which is the official odds declared on the course after the race has ended.

The horse with the shortest odds in any race is the fa­vourite. Horses at very long odds are outsiders. These are two of the simplest terms used in a sport that has a language of its own. This includes an elaborate hand sign language called tic-tac, used by bookmakers on the course to send information to each other.

The start Before a race, the jockeys are weighed with their equipment. This weighing out procedure is supervised by a course official. The weight of each rider and the equipment must match the weight that is as­signed to the jockey's horse.

About 30 minutes before a race, the horses are taken to the paddock, a fenced-in area where they are sad­dled. The jockeys then go to the paddock and, on a sig­nal from an official, they mount their horses. The horses parade past the grandstand and enter their assigned stalls in the starting gate. Another official, the starter, presses a button. A bell rings and ail the stall doors open at the same instant. The horses lunge from the gate, and race toward the winning post.

Officials called stewards may disqualify a horse and change the results of a race if they spot any rule viola­tions. Immediately after a race, to make sure the horses have not been drugged or received illegal medication, urine and blood tests are performed on the winner and others chosen at random. In addition, the jockeys and their equipment are weighed again to confirm that the horses carried the correct weight.

History

Early horse racing. Horse racing probably began about the time that horses were first domesticated. The earliest records of horse races date back to about 1500 B.G, when chariot races were held in eastern Europe and northern Africa. The Olympic Games in ancient Greece first featured chariot races in 680 B.G Races be­tween horses with riders were added to the games in 648 B.C. Horse racing later spread to what became Asia Minor, France, Germany, India, and Italy.

The Romans, who controlled what is now the United Kingdom from the A.D. 40's to the early 400's, introduced horse racing there. Through the centuries, English monarchs and members of the nobility owned race horses. As a result, horse racing is sometimes called the sport of kings. King James I established a racing centre at Newmarket, Suffolk, England, and races began to be held there about 1619. Newmarket is still a centre of horse racing today.

Charles II was the monarch most closely linked with the early history of horse racing in England. He was the only reigning monarch to ride the winner of an official horse race. By the middle of the 170ffs, racing was in a disorganized state. In 1750, the Jockey Club was formed in England, to try and bring order out of chaos. Toward the end of the 1700's, the oldest of the so-called English Classic races were founded. The St Leger came first in 1776, then the Oaks in 1779, followed by the Derby in 1780. The most famous Australian race, the Melbourne Cup, was established in 1861. The Grand Prix de Paris was first held in 1863 in France, and the Irish Sweeps Derby in Ireland in 1866. Steeplechasing over a specially built course (instead of open country) first took place in England at Bedford in 1811.

During the mid-1800's, Turf administrators made strenuous efforts to organize racing properly. They aimed to have the sport controlled efficiently and free 1 from any hint of corruption.

Over the last 100 years, techniques have changed considerably. Today's jockeys ride very differently from the upright stance adopted by their counterparts in the late 1800s. Training methods are more sophisticated, racecourses are far better maintained, and horses are more specialized.

Racing today. Since the end of World War II (1939- 19451), dozens of race horses on the flat and over jumps have won worldwide fame. In 1955 and 1956, the Italian horse Ribot was unbeaten in 16 races, winning the Prix de I'Arc de Triomphe in each of those years. Nijinsky, trained in Ireland, won the English Triple Crown (the Derby, St Leger, and Two Thousand Guineas in 1970, the first horse to do so for 35 years. Arkle, another Irish- trained horse, proved himself to be probably the great­est steeplechaser ever, winning the Cheltenham Cold Cup three times in the mid-1960s. Brigadier Gerard was beaten only once in 18 races.

The French horse Sea Bird II was never beaten, win­ning the Derby and the Arc de Triomphe with great ease in 1965. The great Australian horse Tulloch won 36 of his 53 races. Red Rum was the only horse ever to win three Grand Nationals (1973, 1974, and 1977). The grey steeple­chaser Desert Orchid became one of the most popular racehorses in living memory by winning a succession of big races, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1989.

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