A Dictionary Of Horse Racing Terms - R

RACECOURSE OFFICIALS

The Jockey Club licenses all racecourse officials each year.

The “Clerk of the Course” is far and away the most important official. His job will be to frame races inventively, attract adequate sponsorship, attract big fields and big crowds.

Basically he is responsible for all the core factors that keep a racecourse in business.

The Clerk is also responsible for more minor functions including checking the race card on race day to make sure it comes back correctly from the printers.

The stables have to be disinfected between each race day and so on and so forth; there are a million and one things to be done at each event.

Another seriously important job is that of “Clerk of the Scales”.

Their job is to weigh all jockey and related equipment according to the rules.

They are responsible for all the information on the numbers board, and they have to make sure” the Starter” has a full list of runners, races and riders.

On the flat, the Starter is in charge of starting the race from the stalls. He must do the roll call for the jockeys, ensure that the horses are safely loaded into the stalls, or in jumps races makes sure they are properly lined up for the start.

Once he is happy that everything is in order the horses come under starters orders, and at this point all horses will be considered to have been runners whether they start or not.

The “Starter’s Assistant” has to sit further down the course and if there is a false start for some reason, the assistant has to wave a red flag and the entire field can be recalled.

The 1993 Grand National was THE classic example of a failure of the Starter and the Assistant. The race had to be called void and was considered one of racings greatest disasters.

Once the entire field arrives at the start they are said to be “At the Post”

Stewards:

Approved by the stewards of the Jockey Club are three more “Stewards” to attend each race meeting...

The race meeting is under overall control of the stewards, they are in charge of discipline, can order enquiries, and oversee objections.

They have jurisdiction to impose fines and suspend jockeys or owners. Matters can sometimes be referred to the Jockey Club.

Pointless or trivial objections from jockeys can be met with fines.

If the weather is bad the stewards can decide to abandon an entire event or not.

If the ground is frosty or too hard, again, the stewards have overall responsibility over whether the event goes ahead or not.

RACING CALENDAR

Published by Weatherbys, this expensive weekly handles full entries for all future races, handicap weight allocations, the findings of enquiries and objections, fines or suspensions imposed, and any other important news for race goers.

RACING PLATES

These are racing horseshoes that are particularly light

RAILS

1.Running rails on either side of the race course mark out the precise direction. They are white posts. You may frequently hear that a jockey has found an opening “On the Rails”. Obviously this does not mean the horse is actually on the rails rather that it has found a gap between another horse and the rails and the jockey has squeezed his own horse into it, so overtaking the horse on the inside.

2.Betting rings are also separated by “rails” within Tattersalls.

RATED STAKES

In “Rated Stakes”, the maximum handicap can be no more than 14 pounds

RATINGS

A horse’s ability is captured in its “Ratings”.

At the annual international handicappers meetings, a seasonal order of merit for European horses is included.

In all handicaps the weight of the jockey is taken into consideration but obviously sometimes jockeys present as “Overweight”.

The difference between the advertised weight that the horse has to carry and the weight of the jockey is known as the “Overweight”.

Again yet another extremely useful nugget of information that is displayed on the numbers board.

For example; A horse’s handicap may be initially declared as 9 stone, but the jockey has had a particularly large breakfast and presents at the scales with saddlecloth and saddle and all his other equipment at 9 stone 4 pounds, he will then be declared as 4 pounds overweight.

RECORD SEQUENCES

The longest winning sequence recorded by a UK bred horse was an incredible 79.

The horse was a mare called Catherina, and she ran between 1832 and 1841.

RESULT

The “Result” is the final standings in the aftermath of a race.

Other derivations could include the bookies common phrase “What a Result” so referring to the huge profits they will make when a lightly backed outsider comes through and wins in an unfancied race.

RHT

Stands for Racecourse Holdings Trust. This is a subsidiary of the Jockey Club and its remit is to improve and preserve racecourses solely for horseracing.

The RHT acts specifically to attempt to ensure high standards for horseracing, but the individual courses are run by separate commercial entities.

RINGER

This is cheating by using a four year old horse in place of a three year old that is supposed to be running.

Early in any given season a four year olds increased physical development could be used to great advantage against similar three year olds.

Obviously the owners responsible for the “ringing” will be betting heavily on their horse.

In the Derby in 1844 “francasal” was involved in a “ringing” attempt but was found out.