Racing

A guide to racing terminology and etymology

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In dictionary form, but offering much more than a dictionary, this book presents a guide to the history, development and usage of words and phrases employed on the racecourse, by those who train and look after the horses, those who ride them and those who lose their money betting on them. Here you can find out exactly what 'the distance' is, and why it is so called; what the 'cap' was in handicap; what relation the wild goose chase had to the steeplechase; what is 'dead' about a dead heat and what the differences are between getting in, getting on, getting out, and getting up. The history of racing language has many surprises, so be prepared to discover that racing is not the first, or even the second claimant to the title 'Sport of Kings'; that when jockeys 'nurse' a horse in a race the term comes from the nineteenth-century omnibus service; and what when a horse 'pecks' after a jump this has nothing to do with birds.
Whether at Ascot or a local 'gaff', this book opens up the language of the racecourse, including the bizarre vocabulary of betting, from the 'betting boots' which early bookies put on, to the 'faces', 'heads', 'sharks' and 'sharps' who feed off the 'buzz' and 'whisper' which go round the ring.