RaceHorseHeroes

jackane24 · Joined: 08 Jan 2008 Posts: 893 Location: Windsor

1 1223-2 Our Vic 24 D E Pipe 24 10 11-10 Timmy Murphy 165 175

The '1' closest to the left hand side refers to what number the horse is in that particular race. The number is alloted based on how much weight the horse is to carry in the race, or done on alphabetical order. In America it's done based on which number stall you are to leave from (flat, not jumps).

The '1223-2' part is a round-up on his previous 5 starts. This means that 5 starts ago, he won a race. He followed that up with two 2nds in a row, and then a 3rd. The '-' refers to the season coming to a close and a new one beginning. So on his seasonal reappearance, he finished 2nd.

'Our Vic' is the horse's name.

'24' next to the horse's name refers to how many days ago the horse had his last race.

'D E Pipe' is the name of the trainer, and the '24' next to his name will only be found on the Racing Post website. It refers to the % of runners trained by him that have run to form over the past 2 weeks. It's a very technical thing that I wouldn't even bother with if you're just starting out.

'10' refers to the horse's age. All horses get 1 year older on January 1st to save confusion with horses having individual birthdays.

'11-10' refers to the weight the horse has to carry. If he's running in a handicap, the majority of runners will be carrying different weights. If the race is not a handicap, all the runners will carry the same weight, unless there are special circumstances such as being a mare.

'Timmy Murphy' is the jockey's name.

'165' refers to the Official Rating or OR. It's the rating given by the official handicapper, based on how good he believes the horse is based on his previous starts.

'175' refers to the Racing Post rating or RPR. This is not taken into consideration when allotting weights in handicaps. It's simply a form of rating that people can use when comparing racehorses in the same race.

On 'proper' racecards, such as the ones bought at racetracks or in the Racing Post newspaper, you will find various other things.

Underneath all the above information (depending on how the racecard is set out), there will be 1 or 2 letters followed by the names of 2 horses.

B, Br, Ch or Gr will be at the start, and this refers to the colour of the horse. B is for bay, Br is for brown, Ch is for chestnut and Gr is for grey.

Following that will be c, h, g, f or m. Respectively, colt, horse, gelding, filly or mare. A colt is a 2, 3 or 4-year-old male horse. A horse is the name given to a 5yo male horse or older. A gelding is the name given to a horse who has been castrated. A filly is a 2, 3 or 4yo female horse, and a mare is a female horse of 5yo and above.

Now the 2 horses' names. The first name is the sire of the horse named above. For instance, Our Vic's sire is Old Vic, so Old Vic will be printed underneath Our Vic. Following the sire's (father's) name will be the dam's (mother's) name.