HorseRacingQA.com

SP stands for ‘Starting Price’ and refers to the odds offered on winning, or placed, horses in the event that a punter does not take fixed odds – in the form of an ‘early’ or ‘board’ price – at the time of placing the bet. Historically, the integrity of the starting price system has been overseen by the independent Starting Price Regulatory Commission (SPRC), which employs a team of Starting Price Validators to collate betting information from on-course bookmakers. Starting price is determined by sampling bookmakers offering standard each-way terms and is defined as the market price generally available to ‘good’ money – that is, to lose at least £500 – at the ‘off’.

However, when horse racing went behind closed doors, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, starting prices could not be returned in the traditional way. A system of ‘industry’ starting prices, using betting information from major off-course bookmakers, was adopted instead. This move was controversial, insofar that it was believed, by some, to increase bookmakers’ margins at the expense of punters. However, following further examination by the SPRC, the new system was found to decrease, rather than increase, the factored-in profit margin, or ‘overround’, per race, such that it will be retained in future.

During a race, if a horse, with its jockey intact, takes the wrong course or bypasses an obstacle by running around it, rather than jumping over it, that horse is said to have ‘run out’ and is immediately disqualified. Thus, the in-running comments for the horse in question may include something along the lines of ‘…ridden 3 out, weakened next, ran out approaching last’ and its form figures will include a letter ‘O’ to indicate what happened. Note that ‘ran out’ is slightly different from ‘carried out’ – indicated by a letter ‘C’ in the form figures – where a horse is sufficiently impeded by a rival that it is carried off the course through no fault of its own.

A horse taking the wrong course is often the result of jockey error. While inexcusable, such errors used to be a regular occurrence on the Cross Country Course at Cheltenham, for example, which twists and turns and doubles back on itself at various points. However, it is not uncommon for a horse to hang violently one way or the other, sometimes to the point that it becomes difficult, or impossible, for its jockey to control. In such cases, it may be impossible for a jockey to prevent a horse running out and, in fact, this may be the safest option for all concerned.

‘Bumper’ is a colloquial term used to describe a race officially known, rather confusingly, as a National Hunt Flat Race. Run under National Hunt Rules, typically over distances between 1 mile 4 furlongs and 2 miles 1 furlong, this type of race is intended to provide young, untried horses with racecourse experience without the adding complication of having to negotiate obstacles. No horse that has run under any recognised Rules of Racing, except in similar races in Britain and Ireland, or AQPS Flat races in France, or is aged more than seven years old, is eligible to run in a National Hunt Race.

Nowadays, ‘bumpers’ are often contested by fully-fledged professional jockeys but, historically, they were the preserve of inexperienced conditional and amateur jockeys. The combination of unseasoned horses and unpractised jockeys often had farcical consequences. The term ‘bumper’ was coined, disparagingly, to describe the uncoordinated efforts of the participants, including their propensity to bump into one another as the result of steering problems. That said, the Weatherbys Champion Bumper, which has been a fixture of the Cheltenham Festival since 1992, is a prestigious and valuable Grade 1 contest, with a roll of honour that includes the likes of Cue Card, Champagne Fever and Envoi Allen.