What does Outpointed mean?

[Viltash]

I hear it from pundits and race callers when a horse wins going away, just getting up, absolutely pissing up, and winning cosily.
You can readily outpoint the field and outpoint the field.

Have watched racing for as long I can remember, but I have always wondered what outpointed is all about.

[Slowly Away]

I don’t think it’s a specific racing term…….just a word in common usage to denote ‘did better than’

[cormack15]

Bit like ‘serving it up’

[Viltash]

I see, thanks.

“outpoints them like an odds on favourite should”

[stevecaution]

I always thought the term was borrowed from Boxing, where a fighter may be winning every round by several points and “Outpointing” his opponent.

Another expression used in Horse Racing at times is “Showing his/her rivals a clean pair of heels”

This has its origins in cock-fighting and has nothing to do with winning. It is reference to a bird that refuses to fight and runs away. Because it has not fought, there is no blood on the heels, hence the term “Clean pair of heels”

A rather grisly origin for that cliche then.

“And it’s Wings Of Desire showing his rivals a clean pair heels and readily outpointing the field.”

Swiftly followed by “Frankie, you have won the Derby again, are you happy?”

Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.

[Nathan Hughes]

stevecaution wrote:

cock-fighting “Clean pair of heels”

Sounds like a drag Queen meet up

Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026

[Purwell]

Never heard that term “outpointed”.

I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways

[yeats]

Surely the term originated in point to point racing and has passed on to racing under rules?

A term I’ve never worked out is a horse being “Given The Office” (Weaver likes that one). I know what they mean but don’t know why that term is used.

[Drone]

See this Yeats

http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/forums/viewthread/908/

‘in the van’ is another unusual phrase heard to describe a race leader. It’s presumably a truncation of ‘in the vanguard’ meaning roughly ‘at the front’

or perhaps it means the horse is being ridden like White Van Man drives

[yeats]

Thanks for that Drone, very enlightening.

I notice when a horse is “in the vanguard” all the way and wins, some commentators refer to it as having done it “the hard way”. Not sure how accurate that assertion is.

[Author]

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