Signed Your Winner
Dear Winner
I wish you the best luck on the track,
as well the fact that you said you are going to be racing soon gives
a clue to why the people say your birth date was January 1. Race
horses run in races against horses of the same age group as
themselves. This is made easier by assigning all race horses the
same birthday of January 1 of the year they were actually born. If
you are in a race for two year olds you know that all other horses
were born the same year as you, but not necessarily the same month,
some may have been born in February, others in May.
If race horses went by their actual
birth day and the race was held in April, a race for two year olds
might have some horses born in February, that just turned two years
old, and others that were born in May, and are well over two years
old, about to turn three, this would be far less fair.
Most breeders try to have their foals
born in February, March, April, so they will be a little more mature
for racing than those born in May or June, but they do not want to
have a foal born too soon because if it is born in December it will
be a whole year behind the others in terms of its birthday.
An interesting note is that horses born
south of the equator, for example in Australia, are assigned a
different birth day since the seasons are opposite, as such August 1
is the official birthday of race horses born in Australia, adjusted
only if they come to the northern hemisphere to race.
These birthdays also apply to other
racehorses, not just Thoroughbreds, however your registration papers
will have your correct and actual birth date on them.
Question: Hello, I am puzzled about my color, I was bay when born but am getting white hairs. I am a 3 year old Thoroughbred racehorse, some people say I am roan, others say I am gray, what color am I?
Signed Faded Out
Dear Faded Out
Your correct color would be said to be
gray however in the racehorse industry sometimes a horse who is in
the process of turning gray is said to be roan. Really roan is a
permanent color (not actually seen in Thorougbreds but common in Quarter Horses), it never changes from birth to old age, but gray
horses are born solid and gradually get more and more white hairs
until they are completely gray, which by the way is not the same as
being white, because white horses are rare and are actually born
white. So to clarify you are gray, but might be called roan until
you have more white hairs.
