A Dictionary Of Horse Racing And Betfair Terms - A

By Author: Constance Martinez
Total Articles: 624
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Age:

Horses all have the same birth date irrespective of the precise date of the foaling.

This is fixed in order to allow the configuration of races by age groups.

The date is set as 1 January every year in the northern hemisphere.

Until 1834, the fixed date was 1 May, to correlate with the end of the foaling season.

The following year the official date was shifted for new market horses, to the present one, which occurs before the foaling season has properly started.

The majority of races on the flat are for 2 year olds only, or for 3 y.o only, with a fair proportion also confined to 3 year olds and 4 y.o only, or 3 year olds and upwards.

A horse of either sex before its first birthday is called a foal; between that date and its next birthday it is called a yearling.

All Weather

Not exactly racing in All Weather in that horses still can't race in fog. The surfaces are synthetic and the courses arepresently at Lingfield, Southwell, Wolverhampton, Great Leighs and Kempton Park.

They do provide protection against the frost.

Started in 1990 it ...
... was mainly aimed at offsetting the losses made by the Levy, which were being caused by the cancellations of race meets through the winter months.

There was a problem early on with large numbers of horses killed during hurdles races, but since then it has really taken off and has its own set of followers and devotees.

The performances early on were generally not as good as on turf, but this is altering as the prize money improves and some horses absolutely thrive on it.

What is very exciting is the capacity to incorporate speed ratings into your form study for All Weather racing.

The races are always run at more even pace than on turf due to the differences between the two surfaces.

Horses find it far more difficult to accelerate on sand or synthetic surfaces, than on turf.

The surface at Lingfield is made up of hard graded sand which is then covered by a polymer. This produces an interesting cushioning effect.
It is known as Equitrack and allows water to run off of it, as oppose to more traditional All Weather surfaces which allow rainwater to run through them.

Ante post betting:

This is a style of betting which occurs days, weeks or months before a big race, in comparison to the traditional sort of betting which takes place only in the few hours running up to a race.

There have been various suggestions regarding the origins of the term, but when you look at early pictures and studies relating the history of racing, you can see that bets were usually struck on Newmarket Heath around what can only be described as Betting Posts.

You could say that to bet ante-post was to place a bet in the same way you would today but before the normal betting which happens in the few hours before a race.

The particular races that generate a lot of betting pre race are, unsurprisingly, the big races, the classics, such as the spring and autumn doubles, or the real classics like the Grand National and Ascot week, the big festivals at Goodwood, York, and Cheltenham.

Bookmakers put up their prices well in advance of these events and they attract a great deal of trade.

With some races such as the Derby or the Guineas, wagers are made up to a year in advance of the race itself. A large attraction is that the odds available can be much longer than what are offered on the day.

We can see that even though ante-post betting can be beneficial to punters, bookmakers must still find it a profitable form of betting to employ, despite any losses, otherwise they would stop doing it.

A new type of ante post betting occurs when bookmakers offer early prices on the day of a big race.

Like the more traditional ante post betting the attraction seems to be that many of these early prices are longer than what are available immediately before the race.

This has resulted in a new type of betting known as "arbitrage", whereby, by employing the lay facilities of Betfair, early back prices can be taken with online bookmakers offering longer odds, and then the back bet can be "layed off" on the betting exchanges, Betfair or Betdaq as the SP contracts in the immediate pre race.

The clever punter is left with a risk free bet, with noliability should the horse lose and a profit if the horse wins.

Using the facilites of Betfair this profit can be "greened up" to guarantee a smaller profit whichever horse wins the race.

This system tends to work only with strong favorites whose price falls predictably pre race. But it can turn out quite profitable.

Apprentice allowance:

Jockeys who have ridden fewer winners are allowed a weight allowance to compensate for their inexperience.

This weight is then removed from the total weight a horse is set to carry in a handicap, except in races which are allocated for apprentices only.

In important handicaps trainers are always on the lookout for talented apprentice jockeys, because they can give a horse a huge advantage. Their inexperience is more than offset by their weight allowance.

They don't do very well against senior jockeys on courses that are difficult to negotiate and require a certain level of experience and skill. Race meets at Epsom or Ascot and Goodwood never appear to be great courses for apprentices.

At the post:

When a horse arrives at the point from which the race is set to be started then the horse is said to be At the Post

Auction race:

These races are reserved for 2 y.o only where they have not yet won a race. They are bought as one year olds from a set of specific public auctions.
Mike J Davies is a Horse Racing Expert, LSE Day trader, and a Betfair Trader and Advisor.
For a Free Demo of Scalping the Betfair Racing Markets, and Advanced Betfair Technical Training =>
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