Author: admin

Horse racing in Britain is a cherished tradition, whose roots, as a professional sport, can be traced back to the first Plantaganet King of England, Henry II, during the twelfth century. The word ‘furlong’ is, in fact, centuries older still, having first been recorded in Anglo-Saxon England, at a time before the country was unified, as a single ‘English’ kingdom, in the first half of the tenth century.

‘Furlong’ is derived from the Old English word ‘furlang’, meaning ‘length of a furrow’, which, under the English open-field system was 40 rods, or 660 feet. The furlong remained an official unit of length in Britain, equal to 660 feet, or 220yards, such that the standard linear measurement, the mile, consisted of eight furlongs, until the traditional British Imperial System was replaced by the metric system in 1965.

Of course, Britain is still not fully metricated; road signs, for example, still use miles, fractions of a mile and yards. Nevertheless, the furlong has largely fallen out of favour anywhere outside the world of horse racing, where it remains a standard measurement of distance. On the racecourses, marker posts count back the number of furlongs from the winning post and races shorter than a mile are described exclusively in furlongs on racecards and in the racing press. Longer races may be described in miles, fractions of a mile, or miles and furlongs as appropriate.

The ‘archaic’ furlong is, of course, the equivalent of approximately 201 metres and, apart from tradition, there is no practical reason why British horse races could not be measured in metres, as they are in France and elsewhere in Europe. ‘Tradition is a guide, not a jailer’, wrote William Somerset Vaughan, but, despite some trials, the adoption of metric race distance looks unlikely any time soon.

The principal role of a thoroughbred racehorse trainer is to produce each horse in peak physical condition on raceday, so that it is capable of performing to the best of its ability. However, certain horses, for a variety of reasons, including immaturity, or ‘greenness’, lack of concentration, laziness or just plain roguishness, may need an extra incentive to produce their best form. Under such circumstances, a trainer may opt for headgear, in the form of blinkers, cheekpieces or visor, in an effort to sharpen up a horse and maximise its potential.

Blinkers are semi-circular, usually leather or plastic, cups that are attached to the bridle and restrict peripheral vision, such that the horse focuses on what is happening to the front, rather than to either side or to the rear. To inexperienced horses, racecourse surroundings may prove raucous and distracting, so the application of blinkers may help them to remain calm and collected in the preliminaries and fully attentive in the race itself.

Cheekpieces, and a visor, for that matter, are similar in principle to blinkers insofar as they restrict peripheral vision, albeit to a lesser degree. Cheekpieces, which, as the name suggests, consist of two strips of sheepskin or similar material attached to the bridle, are the least restritive form of headgear and are used primarily as a aid to concentration. A visor is similar to blinkers, but with the addition of eye slits, which afford a small degree of peripheral vision, such that a horse is ‘comforted’ by the presence of its rivals during a race.

In simple terms, ‘overround’, usually expressed as a percentage, is the profit margin deliberately factored into bookmakers’ odds, such that they make a profit on an event, regardless of the outcome. In a fairly weighted, ’round’ betting market, the odds for each outcome, when converted to percentages, add up to 100%. Of course, bookmakers are in the profit business, so it is not in their interest to offer odds that reflect the true probability of each outcome. Instead, they adjust the odds – by how much depends on the bookmaker, the event and the specific market – to create an ‘overround’ book, thereby creating an edge in their favour.

The higher the book percentage rises above 100%, the greater the edge for the bookmaker. Consider a simple coin toss, such as that, say, at the start of the Super Bowl. Obviously, there are just two possible outcomes, heads or tails, with a 50:50, or even money, chance of winning. Bookmakers, though, may offer not even money, or 1/1, but rather 10/11, on either outcome, thereby factoring in a profit margin of around 5%; a book so weighted is described as ‘105% overround’.

Of course, on very rare occasions – as rare as hen’s teeth – bookmakers do make a mistake and create a book in which the total percentages add up to less than 100%. In such an ‘underround’, or ‘overbroke’, book, the layers hand the edge back to bettors, by however far the total percentage is below 100%.

Horses start their racing careers as two-year-olds and three-year-olds, but, depending on code under which they compete, are not considered fully mature until they are four or five years old. Fairly obviously, without any weight allowance, younger, physically immature horses would be at a significant disadvantage when racing against their elders. It was to help offset this disadvantage that the weight-for-age (WFA) scale was conceived and introduced by Admiral Henry John Rous, who was appointed official handicapper at the Jockey Club in 1855. His approach proved successful in its aim of allowing horses of different ages to compete against each other fairly and has remained, virtually unchanged, ever since.

The WFA scale is a graduated, or sliding, scale, which dictates the weight allowance received by younger horses from older ones as they progress, month-by-month, through the racing season. The weight allowance varies according not only to the age of the horse concerned and the time of year, but also, because increased stamina is a function of overall aerobic capacity, muscular endurance and, hence, maturity, the distance of the race being contested. A three-year-old racing over 5 furlongs at the start of October, for example, would receive no weight allowance from its elders, but 1lb over 6 furlongs, 2lb over 7 furlongs and so on, up to 11lb over 20 furlongs, or two and a half miles. Different WFA scales exist for Flat and National Hunt racing, and for horses bred in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.