Whether it’s a bread and butter race meeting in the United Kingdom on a blustery night in Wolverhampton, or a high profile meeting in the United States of America like the Breeders Cup, the exhilaration the owners and trainers of the horses competing for feel are the same as they thunder down the straight to the winning post.
With the jockeys trying to extoll the best from their respective mounts as the whips crack, the excitement of all the punters who have placed their hard-earned money on these horses is very similar. Whether it’s the first race or the last, all the horses running in those races are included in a race card, which is produced for that day’s race meeting.
What is a Race Card? A racecard is a printed card used in horse racing giving information about races, principally the horses running in each particular race including all the relevant information about those horses to allow bettors and punters to make informed decisions as to which horse could win a particular race.
Where it starts – The Stud Farm
The Stud Farm is where the horse racing journey begins. This is where retired racehorses are bought, breeding catalogues are poured over by the owners of these Stud Farms to try and find the best male (stallion) to breed with the best female (mare) to try and have the best young horses (yearlings) to sell at their annual sale.
The yearlings will spend the first twelve to eighteen months on the Stud Farm where they will be taught to do what they have been bred to do, be a racehorse. Once they reach the age of two, the horse will be catalogued and put on the upcoming sale of their respective Stud Farms.
The Trainer
Once the yearling has been bought at the Stud Farm Sale, it now moves to the Yard of its new trainer. Here it will continue to learn how to race, the trainer slowly bringing the horse to its peak, to run in an actual race. Before this, it will continue to have regular gallops at the training facility until it is ready to make its racecourse debut.
The trainer will now decide over which distance to run the horse, which jockey to ride the horse, and what would be the best tactics (whether the horse has the natural speed to make the pace or can settle whilst racing and make its run as the race progresses) to adopt in the race.
Nominations and Acceptance – The Racecard
When the trainer is of the opinion that the horse is ready to run in a race, the trainer will nominate the horse for a particular race in the future at the home course of that horse’s training facilities. Whilst still in the nomination stage, the horse will be allocated a draw, and then the trainer will have to decide whether to accept the nomination or not.
If the trainer accepts, then the horse will be allocated a jockey by the trainer and the racecard for that day’s race meeting will be finalised. This is when a racecard will be printed (there will be many different publications in printed or online format) with all the details of the horses who have accepted for each race printed in the race card.
Flat Racing vs Jump Racing – Flat Racing
Flat Racing refers to horse racing that takes place on a flat surface. In the United Kingdom, the flat season lasts from late March to early April and ends in late October to early November. In Flat racing, the shortest distance is five furlongs, while the longest distance is two miles and six furlongs.
Flat races are typically for young horses, with the majority of horses beginning their careers as two-year-olds. They are believed to be at their prime when they reach the age of three, and hence why the powers that be have restricted Feature Races (The Classics) are limited to three-year-olds.
Flat Racing vs Jump Racing – Jump Racing
Jump Racing is a kind of horse racing in which horses jump over numerous obstacles as they race over and around the racecourse. These may be either hurdle racing, which is lesser and marginally smaller and shorter hurdles, or fences, which are bigger obstacles. In the United Kingdom, the National Hunt season, often known as the jumps season, generally begins in October and lasts until the end of April, with the Cheltenham Festival in March serving as the calendar’s climax.
A National Hunt horse must be three years old before making its racing debut, and unlike Flat horses (they can debut at the age of two), and they improve with age. The shortest distance in National Hunt racing is just under two miles, while the greatest distance is just over four miles and two furlongs, which is faced in the Aintree Grand National in April.
Handicap or Non-Handicap Races
A handicap race is one in which each horse is given a weight depending on its rating. For example, if a horse is rated 95 and carries 9st 5lb, a horse rated 90 will carry 9st. This enables horses of varied ability to compete on an equal playing field.
However, not all races are handicapped, with some of the finest events, known as Feature or Graded Races, having all horses carrying the same weight bar an allowance for age and/or sex.
The Racecard
Whether you are handicapping a flat race meeting, a jumps race meeting, a race meeting featuring a run of the mill handicap races or a meeting with multiple feature races, a Racecard for that particular meeting will be published either in print or online.
All the particulars of the horses participating in each race will be included in the Card, including all the information that all Punters and Bookmakers will require to study the form of each horse as well as all the additional information they will require to make informed decisions as to the possible winner of each race on the Card.