CLASS A
Races on the flat are classified in terms of prize money from the Class A down to Class G. This classification is often used in framing conditions races
CLASSICS
Classic, when applied to a horse race is that term consecrated by long usage.
Classic races are races of longstanding, which habitually attract the best horses and are regarded as the criteria of excellence. More specifically the classics are open only to three year olds and are five in number in England.
The classics are:
New market, spring, 2000 guineas colts and fillies, first run in 1809
New market, spring, 1000 guineas, fillies only, first run 1814
Epsom 1.5 miles, summer, derby colts and fillies, 1780
Epsom 1.5 miles, summer, oaks, Fillies only, first run 1779
Doncaster 1 ѕ miles, autumn, st ledger, Colts and Fillies, first run 1776
As far as Fillies are concerned it is rare these days for them to contest either the 2000 guineas or the oaks with trainers preferring to run them in the equivalent classics open to Fillies only: the 1000 guineas and oaks.
It is important to realize that, originally there was no set intent to establish a pattern of classic races. It simply evolved, and had become recognized as a pattern probably by about the middle of the nineteenth century.
Classic winners have a profoundly influenced the development of the thoroughbred as well as achieving great prestige because in general they have proved themselves the best of the age and breed.
As a medium for betting, the classics generally provide excellent opportunities.
Well advertised form mostly works out, except in a poor overall year; well backed horses tend to win, and, in strong ante-post markets there are opportunities for long prices.
CLEVERLY
A horse which wins more easily than the winning distance suggests is said to have won cleverly. He or she may equally be said to have won with something in hand.
It happens often on the flat where a jockey has let the horse do only enough in order to win.
The full amount of the distance by which he or she might have won is therefore unknown to the public and more importantly to the handicapper who can only guess at the horse’s true capability.
Such horses are worth noting for the future on this sort of evidence, which will be given in the form book and amplified in the comments of raceform and chaseform, in the analysis following results in the racing post, and in superform and timeform, other phrases in the same connection are when a winner is noted as not extended and won with his head in his chest.
COLT
Male thoroughbred from the age of two, up to and including the age of four
CONDITIONS RACES
All races other than handicaps.
The conditions of a race to determine the weight each runner will be set to carry: they may be based on age, sex, value and status of previous races won, and other factors, with weight allowance being made, for example, for not having won a race at all.
The most important category consists of weight for age races. The weights an older horse has to concede to a younger one varies throughout the flat season and national hunt season, becoming less and less as the season progresses.
The precise weights are determined by application of the weight for age scale. But there are many other kinds of conditions race.
CONDITIONAL JOCKEY
A conditional jockey is an inexperienced national hunt rider who must be under the age of 26 and may claim allowances as follows: 7lbs. until he or she has won fifteen races; then 5lbs. up to a total of 30 races; thereafter 3lbs. up to 65 races won.
COURSES
One of the outstanding features of racing in Great Britain is the huge variety of the 59 racecourses, providing differing tests of ability for horses both on the flat and over jumps, as well as pleasure in this very variety for racing enthusiasts.
On the turf, fifteen courses stage both flat racing and jumping; seventeen are devoted to the flat only, while no fewer than 24 cater for jumping only.
In addition Lingfield and Southwell stage racing on turf and artificial surfaces and Wolverhampton on artificial only. The racing post gives a description of relevant courses with plans and statistics.
Most of the jumps only courses are anything but principle race courses, but that does not make them any the less important in the broader pattern of variety. Many of them are small, friendly country courses, as different in atmosphere from the national hunt Mecca at Cheltenham as Royal Ascot is from, say, the little course staging flat racing only on the downs above bath.
They range from Perth and Kelso in Scotland to Bangor on Dee in Wales, from Sedgfield in county Durham to Plumpton in Sussex, from Market Rasen in Lincolnshire to Newton Abbott, Devon and Exeter and others in the West Country.
Some courses are right handed, some left handed and although many are approximately oval, there is a huge variety of differing shapes: Ascot triangular; Windsor and Fontwell, figures of eight, Chester, circular; Brighton is it like a big U with a kink in the lower part; Epsom fittingly is like a great horseshoe with one straight side; Goodwood is like a bent hairpin and Salisbury is like a straightened one; Carlisle is pear shaped and Hereford is almost square.
The majority of meetings in the UK last for only 1, 2 or three days. The longest continuous racing in Britain, in fact, takes place at Ascot in June and Goodwood at the main July / August meeting, both meetings last for five days.
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