Racing Glossary: Horse-Racing Terms Explained

Race classes & conditions

Allowance: A race above claiming level in which horses aren't for sale; eligibility is set by conditions (races won, money earned) rather than a claiming price.
Claiming race: A race in which every runner is for sale at a set price before the race; the most common class of race, forming a ladder from cheap to high-priced claimers.
Conditions: The eligibility rules that define who may enter a race.
Handicap: A race in which the racing secretary assigns each horse a weight intended to give all runners an equal chance.
Maiden: A horse that has never won a race; a maiden race is restricted to such horses.
Stakes / graded stakes: The top class of race, often with an entry fee that adds to the purse. The best are graded G1, G2 and G3, with G1 the highest.
Purse: The prize money for a race, divided among the leading finishers.

Beaten lengths: How far behind the leader a horse is, measured in horse-lengths (about 8.167 feet each).
Closer / off the pace: A horse that races behind the early leaders and runs on late.
Front-runner / on the pace: A horse that races on or near the lead from the start.
Fractional times: The leader's clocked times at each split, describing how fast the race was run early and late.
Points of call: The recorded running position of each horse at set stages of the race.
Speed figure: A single number rating how fast a horse ran, adjusted for distance, surface and track conditions. See our speed figures guide.
Wire-to-wire: Leading a race from start to finish.

Dirt / turf / synthetic: The three racing surfaces; turf is grass and synthetic is an all-weather composite.
Furlong: An eighth of a mile (about 201 metres); race distances are commonly quoted in furlongs.
Off the turf: A race moved from grass to the main track, usually because of rain.
Track condition: The state of the surface, from fast to sloppy on dirt and firm to soft on turf. It has a direct effect on times.

Exotic: Any bet beyond win/place/show, such as an exacta, trifecta or Pick 4. See the bet types guide.
Favourite: The horse with the shortest odds, the one the betting public backs most.
Pari-mutuel: The pooled betting system in which all wagers of a type share a pool and the odds reflect how the public bet.
Takeout: The fixed percentage a track deducts from each betting pool before paying winners.

Connections: The people behind a horse, chiefly its owner, trainer and jockey.
Dam / sire: A horse's mother (dam) and father (sire). The dam's own sire is known as the broodmare sire.
Dosage: A pedigree measure of the balance of speed and stamina in a horse's ancestry. See the dosage & COI guide.
Coefficient of inbreeding (COI): A percentage estimating how closely related a horse's sire and dam are.

Also-ran: A horse that finished out of the money (worse than the paid places).
Disqualification (DQ): An official demotion of a horse's finishing position, usually for interference.
Scratch: A horse withdrawn from a race before it is run.
Stewards' inquiry: An official review of a race that may change the order of finish.