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Common Terminology
Original article written by Regina Moore posted 12 years 2 weeks agoJust like anything else, horse racing has its own jargon that separates the pros from the wannabes.
Here are some common terms that are unlikely to be obvious to the layman.
PEDIGREES
Horses are “by” the sire (father) and “out of” the dam (mother). So, a yearling I have sired by Excess and with the mother named Stand Beside Her would be described as being “by Excess and out of Stand Beside Her.”
If you’re taking offers on a horse “out of Triple Crown winner Awake As I Am”, you’re going to have some players rolling their eyes at your ignorance, since Awake As I Am would be the sire, not the dam.
In racing, half siblings are only acknowledged via the dam and never the sire. In real life, Belmont Stakes winner Risen Star and Travers Stakes winner General Assembly were both by Secretariat, but would not be spoken of as half brothers, even though they shared 50% of their genes. They would merely be said to be “both sired by Secretariat”. I’ve never heard the reason for this terminology, but I assume it’s because stallions can have many hundreds of foals – reducing the significance of any two being by the same sire -- whereas, mares only have a few foals in a lifetime.
So, it’ll puzzle knowledgeable players if you say your colt by Awake As I Am is “a half brother to Thriller”, since both merely have the same sire. But it would be correct to say that the mare More is a half-sister to Awake as I Am, since both are out of the mare Wonder.
Full siblings are acknowledged, so it would be correct to say that Awake As I Am is a full brother to Asleep As I Am, since both have the same father and mother.
RACE RECORD
In wagering in North America, betting a horse to “place” means picking it to finish second. When speaking of a horse’s race record, however, the word “place” refers to both finishing second and finishing third. Therefore, a horse with a 7: 2-1-2 record would be said to have “won or placed in five of seven starts”.
If a SIM horse finishes third in the Louisville Derby, then that horse would be said to have placed in the Louisville Derby. He could also be said to have placed in a Grade 1 stakes.
In real life, in official pedigree details, such as sales catalogs, stakes winners of at least one race are shown in upper case bold type. Horses that placed in at least one stakes (finishing second or third) are shown in bold upper/lower case. This bold typeface is known as “black type”, and most horseman look for horses with a lot of black type in the pedigree when considering the purchase of youngsters or breeding stock.
In SIM, there isn’t any place where black type is displayed. Stakes winners are considered to have special significance, but you have to look at their race record to see that they won a stakes. Also in SIM, stakes are a lot more prevalent than in real life. I looked at one SIM week a few game years back, and 18% of the races were stakes races. Whereas, the last time I recall seeing North American statistics for real racing, only about 7.5% of races were stakes races. In short, it’s a lot easier for a horse to be a stakes winner in SIM than in real life.
In real life casual conversation, a horse can be a “champion” of a certain event and not be incorrect. For example, it would be acceptable to say that Super Saver was the champion of the 2011 Kentucky Derby. But generally, in North American racing, the word “champion” is reserved for those horses that have won an Eclipse Award, which are the divisional awards given at the end of the year. (Nine divisions, plus one of those divisional champions is named Horse of the Year.) I assume it’s similar for year-end honors awarded in other countries.
SIM has the year-end SIMMY awards for many different age and gender groups within various geographical regions for Thoroughbreds, as well as multiple awards within each of the mixed breeds. Winners of these awards are known as champions, and any titles a horse has won are listed on the horse's page.
TYPES OF RACES
There are three major race categories: stakes, allowance (which includes maiden special weight), and claiming. Each of these main categories can be broken down into subcategories.
In SIM, stakes can be broken down into graded stakes (Grade 1, Grade 2 or Grade 3) and listed stakes, with the latter being any stakes that isn’t a graded stakes. In real life, there’s a further subcategory called restricted stakes, which primarily includes races that are reserved for horses bred in a specific state or country. While SIM does have restricted stakes, they aren’t an official category, and are instead lumped in with listed stakes for the purpose of points earned.
Certain words in the name of a stakes race can refer to the age and/or gender the race is for. A “Derby” is always for three year olds. An “Oaks” is always for three year old fillies. A “Futurity” is always for two year olds.
In SIM, all stakes races have an entry fee equal to 1% of the purse.
In SIM, as with real life, allowance races often have “conditions”, such as NW2 (non-winners of two), NW3, etc. Open allowance races can sometimes have fields as tough as stakes races, and occasionally the purses are quite high, even over $50,000 at times.
A specific type of allowance race is a “classified allowance”. This is a race reserved for horses that are stakes winners.
Another specific type of allowance race is a “starter allowance”. This is a race reserved for horses that ran in a claiming race their last start.
Claiming races can have conditions (NW2, NW3, etc). But the most significant aspect of claiming races is their claiming price. Any horse entered in a claiming race can be purchased by another player for the claiming price (which is a different number than the amount of the purse). So, in essence, all horses in claiming races are considered to be for sale. In SIM, the claiming prices can range from a mere $500 all the way up to $100,000.
If a horse is claimed (purchased) by another player, the horse becomes the property of the new owner as soon as the race is over, with the claiming price being deducted from their bank. The prior owner receives any purse money earned in the race, as well as receiving the amount of the claiming price.
If more than one claim is put in for the same horse, the computer randomly decides which player gets the horse. (You can see from the official results chart how many claims were put in for a horse.) No money is deducted from the players that didn’t win the horse.
If you came to SIM for reasons other than already being an avid racing fan, you’re probably behind the terminology curve. Learning the jargon can not only help you be a better player, but also save you some embarrassment when trying to communicate with your fellow players.