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I would guess that over the last five years or so that people playing Poker, online, in pubs, in their own homes, has grown exponentially – did Poker have to dumb down the terminology?
Personally, I’ve never played the game and have no wish too but I do enjoy watching it on the telly and the fact that I don’t really know, as an example, what ‘having the nuts on the river card’ means I don’t believe has detracted from my enjoyment.
This lack of confidence in the ‘Racing Product’ by our rulers and betters is a mystery to me.
Agree with you Pompete. Instead of trying to mainstream things we should be promoting the peculiarity of our words and phrases!
Much of the phrasology comes from commentators during races and really help to enhance a race. I saw the commentary of Rooster Booster’s champion hurdle win the other day and Simon Holt’s brilliant commentary.
"He’s running all other this leader Intersky Falcon" makes it sound like Rooster Booster was jumping all over Intersky like a dog who spots its owner coming out of the shop! But if you saw the race it makes total sense.
As others have mentioned all sports – and professions/practices/pastimes in general – have their own jargon, argot and colloquialisms and they are richer for it.
Horse racing ( in its broadest sense) has a particularly long history, hence is laden with picturesque, archaic and strange phrases
Like Cormack I found them alluring when developing an interest in the sport
Below is a list of racing terms I compiled some years ago that have been borrowed from racing and have become – to a lesser or greater extent – figurative terms in general usage
Some dubious and some chicken-or-egg, quite probably
GIVE HIM HIS HEAD
FAIR CRACK OF THE WHIP
RUN OUT
ODDS ON/AGAINST
SLIPPED UP
PUT DOWN
STAND OFF
LOOSE OFF
KNUCKLE DOWN
PIN BACK YOUR EARS
WARNING OFF
HANG FIRE
HEAD IN THE AIR
OVER REACH
ON HIS TOES
A RACING CERTAINTY
ON THE NOD
HEAVY GOING
TAKE A TURN
PULL UP
TOE IN
BET AGAINST
JOCKEYING FOR POSITION
DOESN’T WANT TO KNOW
BRING DOWN
HEAD IN FRONT
RAN AWAY WITH
STRAINING AT THE BIT
TAKING HOLD OF THE BIT
FREE REIN
SHAKE UP
PUSH OUT
DEAD HEAT
OUT GROWN
FILL OUT
WALKOVER
FROM THE HORSES MOUTH
TALKING HORSE
STALKING HORSE
COVER UP
HELD UP
GOT A LEAD
BLINKERED
MORNING GLORY
A GOOD THING
GIVE AN INCHNot a racing term, as such, but I remember Ted Walsh, on seeing a horse’s nose touch the ground after jumping a fence, refer to it as ‘genuflexing’..which I then had to look up in the dictionary. Only he could use a word like that.
The phrase thats like nails down the blackboard to me is ‘three parts of a length’. Why not just say 3/4.
The phrase thats like nails down the blackboard to me is ‘three parts of a length’. Why not just say 3/4.
I have to confess I am “guilty” of using that term quite a lot.
I, personally, like the sound of the expression which I suppose underlines the fact we all have different preferences.
My other reason for using it in reports is I think it looks tidier when written i.e.
“….. won by ¾ of a length”
or
“won by three parts of a length”
although I suppose “… won by three-quarters of a length” could be used instead.
The phrase thats like nails down the blackboard to me is ‘three parts of a length’. Why not just say 3/4.
I have to confess I am “guilty” of using that term quite a lot.
I, personally, like the sound of the expression which I suppose underlines the fact we all have different preferences.
My other reason for using it in reports is I think it looks tidier when written i.e.
“….. won by ¾ of a length”
or
“won by three parts of a length”
although I suppose “… won by three-quarters of a length” could be used instead.
In decimal terms that would be 0.75 parts of a length!
In decimal terms that would be 0.75 parts of a length!
No – it would be 0.15 seconds
(assuming the going is 5 lengths per second)That’s another anocrinism we should get rid of – replace lengths with proper time gaps!!!
ate up well
hasn’t got a bother on him
likes to hear his hooves rattle
unfurnished
first lot
cantering all over them
pecked on landing
jumps from fence to fence
can’t tip sh*it from a barrow
Pulling double
Hard on the steel
Taking a pull
Take the fractions
Common canter
Pinged
Jumped them senseless
Jumped them into the deck
Bridle merchant
Connections
Trained-on
Weight-for-age
Useless ****
You like a sport you learn about it!!!
nuff said as far as im concerned………..too much being said about this racing for change bollox!!!. You cannot gain peoples interest by these changes…….they either like it or they dont……….. like anything really
Some Americanisms:
Bridgejumper
Working with the dogs up
Two-minute lick
A Silky Sullivan finish (named after this horse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT_YxcoDhtY)
Morning glory
Acey-deucey
Black type
Mud-runnin’ fool
Sealed
Coupled
Steeplethon
Bomber
Bug-boy
Carryover
Got his goat
Bullring
Cheap speed
The Spa, The Big Sandy, The Big A, The Twin Spires, Old Hilltop (Saratoga, Belmont, Aqueduct, Churchill, Pimlico, respectively)
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Some marvellously evocative lists here. In case anyone out there doesn’t know about it, I’d like to recommend one of my favourite bedside books.
“Horse-racing: a book of words” is by Gerald Hammond (Carcanet 1992). It’s a dictionary of arcane and not-so-arcane racing words and phrases, explaining meaning and giving origins.
There are some odd omissions (“yielding” springs to mind) but the book is a treasure trove. For example:
Who out there knows what a “roper” is (or was)?
What’s the meaning of “on velvet”?
Who or what was a “metallician” and why?All these and more delights are to be found in Hammond’s lovely tome.
Sounds excellent Pinza – I confess I haven’t the foggiest on any of those three terms.
(assuming the going is 5 lengths per second)
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