The Race

First of all, is it a Flat race, or a jumps race?

Flat

Flat racing is just what it says, horses racing on a level surface. The Flat season runs from late March or early April, to either late October or early November, though the introduction of artificial surfaces in 2001 meant that Flat racing could continue throughout the winter, but officially the season still opens and closes at the aforementioned junctures.

The shortest distance in Flat racing is five furlongs, while the longest distance is two miles and six furlongs.

Flat races are generally for young horses, with most horses starting their career as two-year-olds. When they reach the age of three, they are considered to be at their peak, which is why the “classics” are restricted to three-year-olds.

Flat races begin with horses being led into stalls by expert stall handlers, this ensures they break away fairly and evenly.

Once out of the stalls jockeys will jostle for position, an often overlooked but crucial factor in all racing.

The race will begin to develop a “shape”, though the real action will likely happen in the final furlong, as jockeys encourage their horses to quicken their stride and make a dash for the finish line.

The horse who gets their head in front first come the finish line is declared the winner. Occasionally, two, or perhaps more, horses will hit the finish line at the same time, leading to a photo-finish, and after further inspection, possibly a dead-heat.

If a horse is adjudged to have interfered with a rival in a significant manner, they can be disqualified from the race, promoting the second placed horse to first.

Jumps

Jumps racing is when horses must leap over obstacles as they race around the track. These can be either hurdles, smaller obstacles, or fences, larger obstacles.
The National Hunt season, also known as the jumps season, traditionally starts in October and runs until the end of April, with the Cheltenham Festival in March the highlight of the calendar.

A National Hunt horse must be three-years-old to make their racecourse debut and, unlike Flat horses, tend to get better with age.

The shortest distance in National Hunt racing is just under two miles, while the longest distance is just over 4m2f, tackled in the Aintree Grand National in April.

Unlike in Flat racing, jumps horses are not ushered into stalls, mainly due to the fact that there are often more runners in National Hunt races than there are in Flat races.

Instead jockeys are required to walk their horses towards the started, who sets them off with a wave of his flag. Quite often a false start will be called, this will be because one or more of the horses will have broken into a trot, giving them an unfair advantage, or not all horses were deemed ready to start racing.

Once the horses have made a satisfactory start, they will also seek the best possible position. This will vary from horse to horse, some like to race from the front, some like to race from the back, but it is important nonetheless.

Jumps races are as a rule longer than Flat races, so the course circuit may be covered more than once in a race.

After all the jumps have been negotiated, it becomes a race to the finish, with the horse who gets their head in front first declared the winner.

The same principals apply as in Flat racing, as per dead-heats and disqualifications, though due to the nature of National Hunt racing, these occur less frequently.

Handicap or non-handicap

Once established whether it is a Flat race or a National Hunt race, we can then investigate whether the race is a handicap or not.

A handicap is a race in which each horse is allocated a weight based on its rating, for example, if a horse is rated 95 and carries 9st 5lb, then a horse rated 90 will carry 9st. This allows horses of varying ability to compete on a level playing field.

Not all races are handicaps however, with some of the best races, known as pattern races, seeing all horses carry the same weight – with the exceptions of age/sex allowances.