Category: FAQ

‘Furlong’ is an Middle English term, derived from the Old English ‘furlang’, meaning ‘length of a furrow’, and was first recorded during the Dark Ages. The distance was standardised as 660 feet, or 220 yards (one-eighth of a mile) during the Middle Ages and, although it remained an official measurement in Britain until 1985, nowadays it is confined, almost exclusively, to horse racing in English-speaking countries.

Similarly, the ‘length’ has been the standard measure for winning margins in horse racing since time in memoriam. However, it may come as a surprise to learn that the length is not a measure of distance per se, but rather a measurement of elapsed time as the horses cross the winning line. An official time is recorded for each horse and is subsequently converted into an official distance by reference to a computerised lengths-per-second table, which takes into account factors such as the prevailing going. In recent years, in the interests of greater accuracy, the lengths-per-second has been extended by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), so that maximum official winning distances up to, and including, 200 lengths are possible.

To answer the headline question, a length can vary according to the size, conformation and stride pattern of the horses involved but, generally speaking, is between 8 and 9 feet. Thus, the number of lengths in a furlong is typically somewhere between 73 and 83.

Eventually the likely performance of a racehorse on looks alone is, at best, an imprecise science. However, racehorses are, after all, athletes and, like their human counterparts, display outward signs of their health, fitness and well-being. Starting from the head, look for bright, alert, expressive eyes, full, fleshy jowls and wide nostrils.

Horses that are bred and trained to compete over shorter, sprint distances are likely to have more heavily muscled shoulders than endurance horses. A similar comment applies to the hindquarters, where bulky, powerful muscles are best for speed, while longer, leaner muscles are best for endurance. Either way, look for symmetrical, well-defined muscles and an indentation between the two large muscles of the haunches, known as the ‘poverty line’, as a sign that a horse has reached peak fitness.

The deeper the girth – that is, the distance from the top of the back to the belly – the better and look for wide, well-sprung ribs that give the lungs to expand. However, beware of horses that are carrying excess weight, or ‘condition’, which may be exhibited as belly fat.

A shiny coat is another visible sign of good health, but also consider the demeanour of the horse as it walks around the paddock or parade ring. Of course, you will only see the horse in its slower paces, but look for a strong, athletic, yet relaxed, walk to indicate that the horse is at ease in its surroundings and ready to run to the best of its ability.

In horse racing, an accumulator is a collective bet on selections in successive races, usually four or more. If the first selection wins, the initial stake and winnings are carried forward to the second selection and so on, such that potential winnings ‘accumulate’ progressively until the end of the bet is reached. For example, if you place a 1-point accumulator on four selections, each at 1/1, or even money, your potential winnings will be 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 16 points.

However, an accumulator is an ‘all or nothing’ bet, so if one of your selections loses, you will lose your stake, regardless of the outcome of the other three races. Consequently, unless you’re in search of a huge return for a relatively small outlay, an accumulator is best suited to horses at prohibitively short odds, which are uneconomical to back individually. Of course, it’s possible to place an ‘accumulator’ on two or three successive races but, in horse racing parlance, the former is usually referred to as a ‘double’ and the latter as a ‘treble’.

‘Tote’ is short for Horserace Totalisator Board and refers to a statutory corporation established, as the Racehorse Betting Control Board, in 1928. For much of its existence, the Tote was the only company in Britain allowed to accept pool bets. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the Tote has become a privatised, limited company and has lost its monopoly on pool betting. However, Tote betting essentially remains the same as it always has been.

Tote betting differs from fixed-odds betting with conevntional bookmakers insofar that all the money staked on a particular market – win, place, and so on – is pooled together. A fixed percentage is deducted from the pool and a winning dividend is calculated by dividing the remainder by the number of winning bets, or units. Obviously, this introduces an element of the unknown but, because the dividend reflects the popularity of a horse in the betting market, less well-backed outsiders often pay better on the Tote than they do with conventional bookmakers.

Tote betting is not limited to simple win, place or each-way bets. More complex, exotic bets include the ever-popular Tote Placepot, where punters select horses to finish placed in the first six races at a designated meeting, and the Tote Swinger, where they select two horses to finish anywhere in the first three in a designated race.