Horse Racing stats man, Andy has contributed to OLBG for 18 years - An Ipswich fan and F1 fanatic, he also contributes EFL football and Motor Sport opinion.
Headgear In Horse Racing
The use of Headgear in racing appears to be more prevalent in recent years, also the differing types of headgear seem to be increasing.
You will see in the daily racecards, letters appearing after the horse's name indicating which if any headgear is being worn on that day.
Win Percentage
You may also see a 1, after the letter, indicating this will be the first time this headgear has been used on this particular runner on the racecourse.
If you are new to horse racing and want to learn more about the sport please check out the horse racing form made easy article.
Horse Racing Form Reading Made Easy & What to Look For
Horse Racing Headgear Abbreviations
On a random midweek card at Yarmouth, we found around a 1/4 of horses wearing some kind of headgear.
| Abbreviation | Headgear |
|---|---|
| b | blinkers |
| e | eye hood |
| e/c | eye cover |
| e/s | eye shield |
| h | hood |
| h/t | hood and tongue tie |
| p | cheekpieces |
| t | tongue - tie |
| v | visor |
The Racing Post use the following abbreviations on their racecards:
Blinkers ( b )
Probably the most widely used of all the headgear on racehorses, they are designed to restrict the horses rear/side vision and the aim is to concentrate the horse's vision on going forward and retain their concentration during a race,
The blinkers also vary in their design, as they can be a full cup or half cup, which allows more side vision to the horse.
There will be a 1 or 2 next to the B to indicate whether it is the 1st or 2nd-time blinkers have been worn.
EyeShield ( e )
An Eye Shield is usually used to protect the horse's eye's during a race, particularly on the AW, where the kickback from the surface, can make some runners not want to stay up with the pace,
You sometimes get a lot of kickback thrown up from the horses at the front on the AW.
Some horses will also wear an eye cover, these aren't very common and are usually seen on runners, who may have lost an eye or have poor vision from one eye.
Cheekpieces ( p )
These are sometimes referred to as French Blinkers and are becoming more commonplace in races these days.
They are strips of sheepskin that are fitted to the horse's bridle, designed to have the same effect as a visor or blinkers, in restricting the side vision of a horse when racing.
They can also be seen with a slim sheepskin band ( more akin to a visor ) or a thicker sheepskin band ( more like a blinker ).
You will also see some horses running in sheepskin nosebands, these were designed to stop a horse putting its head up during a race as they would restrict their forward vision
If a horse raced with a high head carriage, sheepskin nosebands don't need to be declared and won't be shown on a racecard.
Hood ( h )
Hoods are becoming more widely used these days, in particular with edgy colts & fillies,
they are designed to cover the horse's ears and reduce the noise, not only during the race but beforehand as well, they can greatly relax a horse who may have a tendency to get upset with all the noise surrounding race day,
Some horses can get very wound up at the races and the reduction of noise can be very beneficial in helping them relax.
Tongue Strap ( t )
A Tongue Strap is usually applied to aid the horses breathing during a race, it has a couple of advantages,
Firstly it is used to stop the horse (what is termed, swallowing its tongue )
Although the horse's tongue isn't actually swallowed during a race, the horse can get its tongue over the bit and fall back over the airway, restricting air intake, which is vital during the race.
A tongue strap can also help with the steering of a horse during the race, if a horse does get its tongue over the bit, it can on occasions make it harder for the jockey to keep the horse straight, as the bit becomes less effective if the horse's tongue is over the bit instead of under it.
Over the coming days, I will follow up this post with some stats on various Headgear results and also try to find some trainers who utilize the Headgear effectively.
Visor ( v )
A Visor is like a halfway house to Blinkers, they are basically the same design as blinkers but the have a slit or hole cut into the cup to allow partial vision to the rear/side of the horse during the race,
These are probably more effective on a horse that needs to concentrate during a race but also responds to seeing their rivals during the race,
Some horses can tend to idle once they have hit the front.
With blinkers on they may not see their rival until it has pulled upsides, or gone past during the race, with a visor on, the visored runner would see that rival coming sooner than a horse wearing full blinkers.
When a trainer adds any kind of headgear you know that the trainer is trying to help the horse,
Taking note of their actions can help all of us in our constant quest of finding winning horse racing bets.
