You could fill a book with all the things I don’t know about racehorses (and they probably have; I imagine it’s called something like ’Basic Racehorse Facts For Newly-Landed Aliens, The Simplified Edition’).
But I reckon that even people more horse-savvy than me will be surprised to learn that thoroughbreds all share the same birthday.
Yup – Barbara Wrathall, a horse expert at Discount Equestrian, said, “every thoroughbred racehorse, including those in the Royal Stud breeding programme, is officially considered to be born on 1 January”.
Why do thoroughbred racehorses all share a birthday?
Obviously, not all of the horses actually enter the world on the first day of whatever year they were born.
But the New Year date was chosen, Wrathall said, “because the racing world needs a single, standardised date for age categories”.
The age of a horse is really important in racing, she continued, because “a few months can mean a noticeable difference in strength, development and training readiness”.
The Jockey Club stated that, because flat racehorses can begin their careers at just two years old, this can mean a big discrepancy between a horse born in the early months of the year versus those born later.
But most horses don’t enter the most prestigious flat races until at least three years old, while jump horses don’t even begin participating until they’re four or older.
And, prior to the Jockey Club decree in 1834, which set Jan 1 as the horses’ new “birthday”, owners were racing horses with vast age gaps against each other – partly because birth records were so poorly kept.
Wrathall said: “The universal birthday ensures fairness and consistency across the sport, especially important for elite breeders like the Royal Stud.”
And, the expert continued, “at the Royal Studs, where bloodlines are planned years in advance, having a single ‘birthday’ for every foal makes breeding, training schedules, and race eligibility far easier to manage”. Huh!
Thoroughbred horses have different “birthdays” across the world
Prior to the Jockey Club ruling, thoroughbred horses in the UK shared a “birthday” of 1 May, reported Horse Racing Nation.
But it’s 1 August in southern hemisphere spots like Australia.
“That date is set so that mares will begin foaling from early August and in some cases, may still be going in December,” veterinary surgeon Glenn Robertson-Smith told Victoria Racing Club.
“But despite the disparity or distance of, say, August 3 and December 2, the December foal, while some five months behind the August foal, both will be categorised by the same age.”
