More racing terminology

We plan to go see Easy on Saturday, March 22, and I will have an update after that. In the meantime, I talked for a bit with the owner of the ranch where he is in training, and got a bunch of other information. Some may sound like odd questions, but these are just things I was wondering about:

1. Are there entry fees to place your horse in a race? Or any other fees associated with racing?
-- No entry fees. You just sign your horse up for the race meet, and the officials assign you a stall at no charge and create a Race Meet Account for your horse.

2. How much do I have to put in the Account to start with?
-- Very silly question. Nothing! The account is there for the track to put money INTO, not take it OUT OF. They deposit your share of the purse there when your horse wins!

3. Where do the purses come from? If we don't pay entry fees, and get stalls for free, where does the money come from?
-- at Grants Pass Downs, it is considered a Fair Meet (in conjunction with a State or County Fair), and in this case, the State of Oregon puts up $2,200 purse money per race. Some races have added money from other sources such as breed associations. At commercial tracks like Portland Meadows and Los Alamitos (CA), the purses come from all the money the tracks make on pari-mutuel betting and entrance fees.

4. If my horse wins, how much of the purse do we get?
-- First place traditionally gets 1/2 of the total purse. Out of that, 10% is paid to the jockey and usually 10% to the trainer of record. The rest goes into the Account mentioned above.

5. What if my horse doesn't win any money? Does the jockey get paid anything?
-- There is a minimum of about $35 per race paid to the jockey. If our horse has no winnings at the end of the race meet, we would have to write a check to pay the jockey(s). But placings through fifth place (and sometimes more) are usually paid at least $100 or so, so it would be unusual to win nothing in the whole race meet.

6. How is the jockey for my horse chosen?
-- When your horse is entered in a race, the trainer lists which jockeys he wants, in order. Then it is actually up to the jockey to choose which horse he wants to ride. Sometimes a jockey has a formal or informal relationship with a trainer, where he agrees to ride his horses if asked. Or the jockey can simply choose the horse he thinks has the best chance. But since the trainers also get to list which jockeys they want, the selection really works boths ways: the trainers want the best jockeys, and the jockeys wants the best horses (and therefore trainers).

7. Do I supply the tack (saddle, bridle, etc)?
-- The jockey supplies his own saddle, and any other tack is usually supplied by the trainer.

8. What about silks? Do I have to get my own colors made up?
-- The silks at Grants Pass are supplied by the track, and what color you get depends on your horse's post position. So, for example, the horse in post position 1 always gets the red silks, #2 always gets purple, etc. This is so the announcer won't get confused about which horse is which! At other tracks, the trainer supplies the silks and our horse would "run under his colors".

Well, that's it for today. I have a lot more to learn, I'm sure. If any of my readers have ideas about other questions I can ask, let me know! It's hard to think up all the stuff I don't know!

Breaking from the gate

The term "breaking from the gate" refers to the start of a race, when the horses come flying (hopefully) out of the starting gates and the race is on. I asked our trainer, Liz, how do they train a horse to come out of the gate fast? We visited Easy yesterday, Sunday March 2, and he is not getting trained to break from the gate yet, but Liz has walked him through the gate many times. That's the first step in the training process. So what, I wondered, do they do to convey the idea of coming out fast? Liz explained it to us: next, they will ride Easy into the gate, and stop (with the front and back still open), then walk on out. Then, they'll do the same, but with the front (exit) gate closed, then open the gate and walk out. Then they'll do that, with a familiar horse buddy in the next gate over, walk in, open the gate, walk out. Finally, the familiar horse buddy will "break" from the gate, and we hope Easy follows his lead. Of course, all of these steps will be done repeatedly, as many times as needed, until he gets the idea to break fast. Horses' "flight" response cues them to run when another horse runs anyway, so this sounds like such a natural way to teach "the break".

Easy did really well yesterday, and it takes a lot longer, harder workout to tire him out. He is getting much more responsive to Liz; she only tapped him with the crop once in this entire training session. He's still a bit head-tossy when being ridden, and isn't great about taking the bit, so we are having his teeth checked on Wednesday. He has a loose lower from tooth, although that shouldn't cause bit problems. But we recently had Koko's teeth checked, and she needed her wolf teeth extracted (Easy has already had his out), and had a cap (baby tooth) which hadn't fallen out and was cracked and sharp. They also pulled that cap and floated her teeth. It's not unlikely Easy needs just this kind of dental attention.

We are going to see Koko tomorrow, Tuesday. I'll report on her then.