A Dictionary Of Horse Racing Terms - I To L

IN THE FRAME

Once a horse has been placed or has managed to win a race, its number will be displayed in the winning frame of the numbers board on the racecourse.

It is then said to be “In the frame”

IRONS

When a jockeys riding boots become separated from the stirrups during a race, he is said to have “Lost his irons”.

JOCKEY CLUB

With its origins at the Star and Garter, Pall Mall, the Jockey Club is the oldest turf authority in the world. Formed in 1752 it was incorporated into the Royal Charter in 1970, and was the only governing body for British horse racing for both jumps and flat until recently.

Up until 1968 the National Hunt Committee administered jumps meets, but in 1968 this body was merged into the Jockey Club.

Jockey Club premises are sited at the Jockey Club Rooms in the High Street, Newmarket.

4500 acres of land around Newmarket are owned by the Jockey Club, including the Heath where race meets are held. 2800 acres are used for gallops training.

The Jockey Club now has modern offices in Portman Square, London.

Excellent information re: the Jockey Club is available online at:

http://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk

It is packed with up to date news, stories and Jockey Club decisions, the clubs history and various activities.

Advice on how day to day racing is conducted. Safety and welfare issues are covered and there is full analysis of licensing and discipline.

JOINT

On the racecourse, a bookie will setup a temporary “establishment” made up of:

• Wooden steps

• A tin tray or other receptacle for coins, chalk and sponge

• A board to mark the odds on with chalk. This used to be a blackboard, but is more often a whiteboard nowadays with black marker ink.

• A collapsible metal tripod on which the board can be mounted, and a satchel into which banknotes can be put (and lucky punters paid)

The most important feature of the joint is the wooden steps from where the bookie can shout the odds and give out tickets. Before racing, these steps can be seen piled up in Tattersalls and other betting rings.

The bookies clerk is also on or near the steps entering all bets into the field book as they are laid, and with breathtaking arithmetic he will note down other details about the bet such as the loss stood by the firm should the bettor win.

LADS, LASSES

The whole business of racing would cease to exist without its core workforce, known as “stable lads and lasses”. They are generally quite poorly paid, working for the love of the sport. The work is hard and the hours unsocial.

On average they tend to 3 horses, mucking and riding out.

Sue Montgomery of the Racing Post once commented:

“One of the main problems of working with horses, is that relatively few people do unless they want to.

It has always been the vocations such as nursing, the cloth, teaching and working with animals that have been lowest in the pecking order for conditions and money.

With horses, employers have traditionally taken advantage of firstly their employees desire to do the job, and secondly their love for individual horses and their care”

LEG

Various possible meanings:

1. If a horse suffers a leg injury: “he’s done a leg”

2. Could indicate the current stage of a multiple bet i.e. the Lincoln Handicap could be considered the first “leg” of the Spring Double with the Grand National being the second.

3. The forerunners of modern bookies had a bad reputation and were often referred to as “blacklegs” or just “legs”

LEVY BOARD

Abbreviation of the "Horserace Betting Levy Board." Established in 1961 this has become a statutory body in the same year that betting shops were first made legal.

The objective of the board is to filter money that is put into racing every year via betting back through various angles aimed at the greater good of racing.

The scope of the operation has grown hugely in terms of the racing activities and the various funded interests, but overall given inflation over the same period, the levy fails to collect much more money in real terms than it did 45 years ago.

The money is used for a wide variety of purposes including breeding and racing programmes, but as always there never appears to be enough.

Other uses of the money include prize money (the biggest outgoing), security, technical services on racecourses, improvements to racecourses, veterinary research, point to points, horse and pony societies, apprentice training and farriery.

LIMITED STAKES

Only horses awarded a handicap rating at or below a figure specified in the conditions for the race are allowed to compete.

LISTED RACE

The importance of “listed races” is immediately below that of Group races.

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