Gerald Hammond

In dictionary form but offering much more than dictionary definitions, The Language of Horse Racing presents a guide to the history, development and usage of words and phrases employed on the racecourse, by those who train and look after horses, those who ride them, and those who lose their money betting on them. Here the reader will discover exactly what the distance is, and why it is so called; what the cap was in handicap; what relation the wild goose chase had to the steeple-chase; what is dead about a dead heat; and what the differences are between getting in, getting on, getting out and getting up. The Language of Horse Racing also reveals the language of the racecourse, including the bizarre vocabulary of betting, from the betting boots that early bookies put on, to the faces, heads, sharks and sharps who feed off the buzz and whisper that go round the ring.