What is Handicap Racing?

What is Handicap Racing? Handicap racing is based on the tried-and-tested premise that increasing or decreasing the weight that a horse carries will ultimately affect the speed at which it can gallop over a certain distance. Thus, by allotting each horse a weight proportional to its ability, it is possible to frame a race in which each participant has, at least in theory, an equal chance of winning. Handicap races, Flat and National Hunt, account for approximately 60% of all horse races run in Britain.

Handicap racing was ‘invented’ by Admiral Henry John Rous, who was, at the time, senior steward of the Jockey Club, in the mid-nineteenth century. Nowadays, handicapping is the responsibility of a team of professional handicappers employed by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). To qualify for an official handicap rating, a horse must run in two or three non-handicap races, so that its ability can be assessed. Thereafter, each subsequent performance is monitored and the official rating may be increased, decreased or remain unchanged as a result. Handicap races are classified as ‘Class 2’, ‘Class 3’, etc, according to the official handicap ratings of the horses are eligible to compete; thus, an improving horse may need to step up in class as its official rating increases.

Which horse was the most expensive ever?

Which horse was the most expensive ever? The most expensive racehorse ever was the 2000 Kentucky Derby winner, Fusaichi Pegasus, who raced just five times for trainer Neil Drysdale, but nonetheless accrued nearly £1 million in prize money and was sold to Coolmore Stud for £53.7 million at the end of his three-year-old campaign. The sale proved excellent business for his original owner, Fusao Sekiguchi, who bought him for just over £3 million as a yearling, but less so for Coolmore Stud. The son of Mr. Prospector proved a less-than-stellar acquisition and was eventually pensioned off stallion duty, as a 23-year-old, in 2020.

Interesting, John Magnier and his Coolmore Stud associates Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith also hold the record for the most expensive horse ever sold at public auction, a two-year-old son of leading US sire Forestry, from the family of Storm Cat, called The Green Monkey. At the Fasig-Tipton Calder Sale in January, 2006, The Green Monkey was knocked down to his new owners for £12 million and put into training with Todd Pletcher. He did not see a racecourse until the following September and, when he did, was placed just once in minor company before being retired from racing in February, 2008. He subsequently stood at Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds in Ocala, Florida, but was equally unsuccessful as a stallion.

What is flat racing?

Flat racing is the discipline of horse racing that involves no obstacles. In Britain, Flat races are staged over distances between 5 furlongs and 2 miles 5 furlongs and 143 yards and, in most cases, started from starting stalls to ensure that participants break on level terms. Flat racing includes the most valuable and prestigious races on the British racing calendar, not least the five ‘Classic’ races, namely the 1,000 Guineas, 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Oaks and St. Leger. Indeed, Newmarket Racecourse in Suffolk, which plays host to the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas, is considered the headquarters of British Flat racing.

Of the 59 racecourses on mainland Britain, 19 cater exclusively for Flat racing, while a further 17 offer Flat racing during the summer months and National Hunt racing during the winter. Traditionally, the British Flat racing season started with the Lincoln Handicap Meeting at Doncaster in late March or early April and ended with the November Handicap Meeting at the same course. However, Flat racing on synthetic, or all-weather, surfaces is staged on all bar three days of the year.

How can you tell one racehorse from another?

Of course, during a race, each horse carries its own, unique colours – the jockeys of horses in the same ownership wear distinguishing caps – so it is easy enough to tell one from another. However, for security purposes, it is important that a horse can be identified on its arrival at the racecourse stables. All horses, regardless of their date of birth, must nowadays be microchipped and the unique microchip number must be registered on the Central Equine Database (CED), which is maintained by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Telling one racehorse from another should therefore be as simple as scanning microchips on entry but, occasionally, a microchip cannot be read, so all horses must also, legally, have an identification document, or ‘passport’. Along with its unique microchip number, a horse’s passport also includes details of its colour and marking, such that it can be used to identify the horse, if need be. Horses racing for the first time may have their passports checked but, thereafter, identification by scanning the microchip is usually all that is required. Ultimately, if a horse cannot be identified, by one means or another, it cannot run in a race.

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