In addition to learning practical business concepts in the University of Louisville's Equine Business program, I've also picked up some great trivia tidbits about the origins of racing terms and traditions. I thought I'd share a few of them here, in case you might not know some of them.
Furlong - How did it come to be that a furlong equals an eighth of a mile? It dates back to at least the ninth century when farmers would measure how far oxen could pull a plough before giving out and needing rest. It turns out, it was about an eighth of a mile, and this was referred to as a "furrow long," which was later shortened to furlong.
Chalk - In a time when bookies ruled the racetrack, they would write their odds on a chalkboard. After a few people bet on a certain horse at 5-1, let's say, the bookmaker would wipe off the chalk and write in lower odds - maybe 2-1. They constantly updated the "chalk", and the term is still widely used today to denote the favorites in a race.The Sport of Kings: People usually attribute this to the idea that racing was traditionally a sport for wealthy people, and that's partially true. But the phrase actually derives from the post-Restoration era in England in the late 1600's when a series of kings who loved horse racing took the throne. Prior to the Restoration, racing was banned. Afterward, it literally became the Sport of Kings.
Win/Place/Show: We have the Sheriff of Nottingham (of Robin Hood fame) to thank for this one. Since the kings and nobles of that era loved racing, the Sheriff wanted to offer them fabulous prizes for winning races. He issued an order to create a plate for the winner. When the plate was brought to him, he said, "No, that's too small. Make a bigger one." So, a bigger plate was brought to him, and the Sheriff still wasn't satisfied. Finally, he received a plate that was big enough in his eyes, and he decided to award that to the winner. Not wanting to waste plates, he chose to give the smaller ones to the second and third place finishers, who were probably also nobles, and the Sheriff didn't want them to go home empty handed!
Derby: The Kentucky Derby, The Irish Derby, The Epsom Derby. The name comes from Lord Derby, who in the late 1700's, flipped a coin with Sir Charles Bunbury, to determine whose name would be attached to a new race for three-year-old colts. Lord Derby won the toss, thankfully, and to this day, races for three-year-old colts are called Derbies. Otherwise, we might be getting ready for the Kentucky Bunbury every spring.
The Blood-Horse: I always wondered why they would name a magazine, Blood-Horse. Following the English Restoration, the kings were looking for faster horses to compete in their races. They heard about a breed of horses in the Arabian desert. They brought some of these horses to England to breed with their mares, and thus started the Thoroughbred, which at the time was also called a "hot-blood" or a "blooded horse."
Sweepstakes: Stakes races began with horse owners quite literally putting bags of money - their "stakes" - on a table. When the race was over, the winner would sweep all of the bags of money into his own. I'm guessing they optimistically brought along an extra, bigger bag for such a purpose.
Why gambling: Why is gambling such as essential part of racing? It boils down to the idea of "rooting interest." As baseball grew as a sport, it was easy to find a rooting interest. You were a fan of your hometown team. Towns all over the Midwest had teams. But for racing to compete, it needed to create an emotional stake in the sport like those fans of baseball naturally had. While gambling on racing obviously predates baseball (the pari-mutuel betting system was developed in France), it became essential for American racing because when people went to the track, they didn't know the horses. They needed a reason to pull for them, and that reason became their own money.
Why Kentucky: How did Kentucky become the center of the breeding world? A lot of people attribute it to the limestone in the water and its supposed positive effects on horse bones. But a more likely reason is that during the Civil War, the armies sought out horses for battle by going door-to-door in horse states like Maryland and Virginia. They used the power of eminent domain to confiscate every good horse they found, and many of them were Thoroughbreds. Some of the breeders decided to take their horses over the mountains to the safety of Central Kentucky, where a few good horse farms had cropped up. When the war was over, Kentucky had virtually the only good Thoroughbreds left.
The Kentucky Derby: For its first few decades, the Kentucky Derby received no national attention. It was only in the early 1900's, when Louisville businessman Matt Winn, president of Churchill Downs, decided to market the race on a larger scale that it took off. Winn would call up prominent Thoroughbred owners in other states and offer to pay all of their expenses for bringing their horse and their families to Louisville the first Saturday in May. He would ask the owner, can your horse beat that horse in Chicago? Oh yeah, they'd say, no doubt. Then, Winn would call that horse's owner and say, hey, there's a guy in New York who says he can beat your horse. Wanna come down and take him on? And so it all began.
Well Done
ReplyDeleteGreat info and a fun read!
ReplyDelete