If you think you've seen it all in thoroughbred horse racing, chances are you probably haven't heard it all. The terms that make up a horse racing lexicon are so vast, unique and sometimes confusing that they produce a glossary in many horse racing books as well as on websites, including Keeneland.com, which includes " Racing Terms” in a “Beginner’s Guide”. what could be heard around the Keeneland paddock demonstrates the need for a glossary: ​​“He ran six boards and did ball work even after being caught in the stretch. His coach still thinks he's a router. However, his result indicates that he is a sprinter, and he may need a stretcher and a good breeze before running a route. , preserved by running. In Old English, a furlang was the length of a furrow in a 10-acre field and before that, the equivalent of a Roman stadia or an eighth of a mile. “Placed” means the horse finished second. A "ball work" was the fastest training time over a particular distance on the day the horse was training, an effort indicated by a black dot or "ball" in the track program. “Relieved” means the horse had to be restrained or “steadied” (another racing term) by the jockey due to close racing. The stretch, of course, is the straight line that leads to the wire and the finish line. The trainer's assessment of the horse as a "router" illustrates the unique and seemingly contradictory meaning given to certain words and terms in racing. The trainer does not mean that the horse is sure to outrun its competitors by huge margins, but that it is best suited to "routes" or races of a mile and an eighth or more. The “bottom line”, too...... middle of paper ......f like a bug. A "second call" rider is a jockey who has been called to ride the horse if the trainer's first preference is not available. An obscure and little-heard term in recent decades is jockey who rides “acey-deucy.” This means the jockey prefers uneven stirrups or one longer than the other, as legendary rider Eddie Arcaro did. The good news with racing terms is that due to history, the lexicon is established with little to no new terms added. However, it is not a “language” learned overnight. Is there a “background” to all terms and expressions? Actually, there are two: the bottom of the list ("work tab" in Keeneland.com running terms - a list of morning workouts based on distance and time) and "the bottom" as in in another term you might hear with "tensioner", "panels", etc. The bottom line of a racehorse is its endurance.