How to read a Racecard

Racecards allow racegoers to study the form and find out more about the horses that are racing in front of them.

There are usually 7-8 races taking place on each raceday and a racecard can appear quite confusing with a whole host of numbers, letters and facts to decipher. This quick guide has everything you need to understand and read a racecard.

01 Race number | Time | Title

The number of the race. Time the race is due off. Race name usually including sponsor.

02 Course | race distance

The track the horses are running on. The distance the horses will travel from start to finish during the race displayed in meters.

03 Jockey colours

The Owners colours that the Jockey will wear aboard the horse whilst racing. Each set of colours are unique to an owner. In the event of the owner having two runners the owner will change the cap colour so the judge can distinguish between the owner’s multiple runners. In some cases they may have more than one design of colours registered.

04

Horse’s saddlecloth number

The saddle cloth number assigned to the horse for the race. This is sorted by highest weight and then assigned alphabetically if horses are due to carry the same weight for handicap ratings.

05

Weight

This is the amount of weight each horse carries including the Jockey. If the Jockey holds an apprentice licence (and they can claim in the race) the weight with the claim will be displayed in brackets.

06

Horse’s name

Name of the horse displayed in English and Arabic within the racecard.

07

Horse’s age

Age of the horse at the time of the race.

08 Form

Guide

The previous horses performances with details of date, distance, jockey, weight carried, race type, equipment worn i.e V for visor, placings, ratings, time, winners time, margins beaten or distance won by.

09 Stall number

The stall numbers are randomly generated by the racing administration system for all races apart from the Bahrain International Trophy where a manual stalls draw is completed. The stalls draw dictates which gate number the horse will start the race from.

10 Breeding – Sire - Dam - Damsire

Sire (the father of the horse)

Dam (the mother of the horse)

Damsire (the father of the dam)

11 Owner

The owner/s of the horse.

12 Jockey’s name

The rider of the horse.

13 Breeder

The person/s responsible for breeding the horse.

14 Trainer

The person responsible for the training and welfare of the horse.

Headgear

Headgear is used by trainers to try and help a horse’s overall performance.

Headgear is displayed in the racecard as follows:

B = blinkers | E = eye hood

EC = eye cover | ES = Eye Shield | H = Hood

HT = Hood and tongue tie | T = Tongue-tie

CP = Cheek Pieces | V = Visor

16

Rating

This is the horses current handicap rating for the race. On the form guide you can see previous ratings the horse has run off for its historic performances. A handicap rating is assigned to a horse by a Handicapper.