An Alphabet Of Horse Racing Terms - E And F

EACH WAY BET

To bet each way is to stake equal amounts for a win and for a place.

On the racecourse it used to be difficult for the ordinary punter to get a bookmaker to lay an each way bet except in big events such as the Derby and Grand National.

It is much easier nowadays; many bookmakers will take each way in certain races, and put a notice on their boards each way taken with the odds on offer.

Credit bookmakers on and off the course, betting shops, and the Tote, on and off the course, all take each way bets.

EBF

The initials of the European Breeders’ Fund. This originated in June, 1983, when breeders in great Britain, Ireland and France signed an agreement to create a fund into which stallion owners would pay an annual contribution equal to the average covering fee for each sire being nominated to the scheme, and from which only the progeny of those participating stallions would be eligible to benefit.

Proceeds of the fund in the British part of the scheme are channeled into prize money, breeders’ prizes for horses sired by British based stallions, owner’s premiums for selected patent and listed races on the flat, and veterinary research.

ENTIRE

A male horse that has not been gelded [castrated]

ENTRIES

Entries for nearly all races are made five days beforehand to Weatherbys.

Weights for such races are allocated the following day according to the published conditions of the race, or, if the event is a handicap, by the official handicapper.

The entry may be withdrawn at any time (scratched) up to the day before the race, at which time, if it is intended to compete, it must be declared to run. This is the overnight declaration stage and trainers these days can telex or fax Weatherbys with odecs.

Acceptors

Big race acceptors is a heading sometimes seen in the newspapers. Below it will be a list of horses remaining in a big race after a forfeit stage.

FAVOURITE

The horse or horses at the shortest price in the betting. When there are two at equal shortest prices they become joint favourites. When there are more than two they become Co-favourites.

Several methods of betting depend on backing the favourite, either by name or simply nominated as favourite. The horse next in the betting is known as the second favourite and so on.

FIELD

Multiple meanings

1. In general this refers to the total number of runners for a particular race. Hence “The field for this year’s Derby will be the smallest since Nijinsky beat ten opponents in 1970” does not mean that an unusually cramped alternative to Epsom racecourse has been found.

2. In betting terms it means the shortest priced horse in any given field, so, effectively, that is the price of the favourite, as in the bookmakers shouts of “six to four the field”.

3. The field book is a bookmaker’s record of bets taken on a race, kept by the bookmaker’s clerk on specially ruled paper on a large clipboard, or in a bookmaker’s office in the case of ante-post betting. The field book records bets taken, prices laid and to whom, and the total liability should any given horse win, called the “take out”. However impending computerization will have an effect on all this.

4. Field money is the bookmaker’s term for the total amount staked on the race out of which must come take out and profit.

5. Fielding against the favourite means that bookmakers are laying the favourite excessively in the expectation of it not winning.

FILLY

Female thoroughbreds from the age of two up to and including four years.

At five she officially becomes a mare. Game fillies and mares exerts a powerful influence on the affections of race goers

FORM

The form of any given horse is the sum total of its achievements, or otherwise, on the racecourse as recorded in the formbook, or extracted from the formbook at length in the sporting press, and in a rather more compressed presentation in other newspapers.

A horse which has no chance on the book is one whose form, on close examination, does not give it a winning chance in a future race. Just as music can be seen as merely a series of notes written on paper for a musician to play, so the formbook provides only facts.

Equally, musicians are capable of varying performances from the same set of notes, and the facts in the formbook are similarly open to differing interpretations.

The word form is often related to a particular race, as in the phrase “the Coventry Stakes form is working out rather well” meaning that horses beaten in the Coventry Stakes have been running consistently with the form shown in that race, and several of them, perhaps, have subsequently won.

They will then be said to have advertised the Coventry stakes form. The converse is to “let the form down”

FRONT RUNNER

A horse who likes to go out in front and stay there or “cut out the running”.

Timeform, the Racing Post, and the formbook give plenty of hints on this preference.

Conversely, many horses have to be ”covered up” until the last minute because once in front they tend to idle, thinking they have done enough. Again, Timeform, the Racing Post, and the formbook give you clues.

Tracks on which front running tactics often pay off are Chester and Sandown Park. Notable front runners that were idols of the crowds, were, Desert Orchid, and the 1987 Derby and St Leger’s winner, Reference Point.

FULL BROTHER, FULL SISTER

Both full brother and full sister refer to a horse who shares the same sire and the same dam. Such coincidence does not guarantee compatible ability on the racecourse.

A half brother or half sister refers specifically to horses that share the same dam, but not to horses that are out of differing dams that are sharing the same sire.