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Like any competitive activity – or, indeed, any activity – involving animals, horse racing exposes its participants, equine and human alike, to the risk of injury and, occasionally, traumatic injury and death. However, despite public perception, horses can, in fact, be surprisingly fragile animals and, as such, are susceptible to injury regardless of their line of work. Indeed, according to a study published in the Equine Veterinary Journal, which assessed the frequency of injuries in the general horse population Britain, horses are nearly five times more likely to sustain traumatic injury when turned out in a field than during ridden exercise.

Furthermore, figures from the governing body, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), suggest that, in the first decade-and-a-half of the twenty-first century, equine fatalities on British racecourses occurred at a rate of 0.2%. Based on a horses-in-training population of 14,000, which accounts for over 90,000 ruuners a year, on average, boils down to approximately 180 racecourse deaths per annum.

The level of inherent risk to participants in horse racing is very low and despite accusations of ‘ignorance, apathy and callousness’ levelled at trainers, jockeys, owners, racecourses and veterinarians, horses do receive the highest standards of care, as demanded by the governing body. The BHA fully acknowleges the risks involved, particularly in National Hunt racing and is fully committed to reducing those risks for both horses and jockeys. British racing, as a whole, has invested millions of pounds in veterinary research, via the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB), and racecourses employ a team qualified, experienced veterinarians, doctors and paramedics to provide immediate attention in the event of any on-course incident.

Said to be ‘The Sport of Kings’, horse racing can be a lucrative business for those operating at the very top, but, regardless of the ‘code’ of racing (Flat or National Hunt), jockeys’ earnings from prize money vary widely. Of course, a handful of top jockeys have contracts, or ‘retainers’, to ride for individual owners ot trainers. Current British Champion Flat Jockey William Buick, for example, is retained by Goldolphin, while his predecessor, Oisin Murphy, is retained by Qatar Racing.

However, the vast majority of jockeys are self-employed and, as such, rely on a flat-rate riding fee, for each mount they take, and a percentage of any prize-money they win to earn a living. Riding fees are negotiated between the Professional Jockeys’ Association (PJA) and the Racehorse Owners’ Association (ROA) and, at the time of writing, currently stand at £162.79 and £221.28, per ride, for Flat and National Hunt jockeys respectively. Prize-money percentages range from 6.9% for the former to 8.5% or 9% for the latter, depending on the race in question.

Thus, top jockeys earn more money not by charging more, but rather by riding more often – and, typically, more successfully, at a higher level – than the rank and file of the weighing room. Obviously, jockeys’ earnings are subject to deductions, such as agent, valet and PJA fees, among others, expenses, not least travelling expenses, and taxation. On average, though, according to the ‘Racing Post’, Flat jockeys earn £27,800, gross, per annum, while National Hunt jockeys earn £20,500.

In horse racing parlance, the ‘going’ is the description of the underfoot conditions or, in other words, the state of the ground on a certain racecourse. It is measured by the Clerk of the Course, using a device known as a ‘GoingStick’, the tip of which is pushed into the ground to provide an objective, numerical reading of the moisture content and, hence, the firmness of the going.

Depending on the GoingStick reading, the going is described by a number of terms, ranging from ‘firm’, which is the driest, fastest ground, often experienced in summer during the Flat season, to ‘heavy’, which is the wettest, slowest ground, often experienced in winter during the National Hunt season. On synthetic, all-weather racing surfaces, the going may variously be described as ‘fast’, ‘standard’ or ‘slow’ depending on the moisture content of the surface.

Like human athletes, horses have their own range of requirements. Some, but not all, may be capable of reproducing their best form on any going, but more often they prefer one type of going to another. The going is a crucial variable, which often determines where and when connections decide to run their horses in the first place, and how they perform when they do make it to the racecourse. Thus, from a punting perspective, it is equally important to determine, by reference to the formbook, that a horse is capable of acting on the prevailing going. Indeed, along with fitness and the distance of the race being contested, the going is one of the most important factors to consider when attempting to determine the likely outcome.

If you look at the full finishing order of any horse race, on the results page of the ‘Racing Post’ or a similar publication, you’ll notice that the distance between one horse and another is recorded in lengths, or fractions of a length. Of course, this is true not only of the winning distance – or, in other words, the officially declared distance between the first two horses past the post – but also the distances between the placed, and unplaced, horses, right down to last place.

Nowadays, distances range from a nose, at one end of the scale, to 200 lengths, at the other. In terms of actual physical distance, a nose can be anything between an eighth of an inch and three inches, approximately, while a length is typically between eight and nine feet, approximately. However, it is worth noting that distances are not actually calculated by measuring the length of space between two horses. In fact, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) utilises a series of computerised ‘lengths per second’ (LPS) tables, such that, in fact, all distances are a measurement of elapsed time between horses.

The scale of each LPS table varies according to the code under which the race takes place, that is, Flat or National Hunt, the official going description on the day and, for all-weather racing, the specific type of synthetic surface, such as Fibresand, Polytrack or Tapeta. Thus, scales range from four lengths per second, for National Hunt races run on good to soft, or worse, going to six lengths per second for Flat races run on good to soft, or better, going or on Polytrack.