Question about a term I heard on the backside

[Texarkana]

@FrenchLady

First, as no one corrected you, and no offense but it’s actually called backstretch not backside.

Backside was used correctly. The terms can be used interchangeably, although typically backstretch gets used FAR more frequently to describe the back straightaway on an oval racetrack. In the vernacular where I have worked or owned horses, backside is much more commonly used when referring to the stabling areas.

[Pronzini]

@Texarkana

Backside was used correctly. The terms can be used interchangeably, although typically backstretch gets used FAR more frequently to describe the back straightaway on an oval racetrack. In the vernacular where I have worked or owned horses, backside is much more commonly used when referring to the stabling areas.

It’s a correct term particularly when being differentiated from the frontside which is the stands where the fans are.

[Denali6298]

@FrenchLady

First, as no one corrected you, and no offense but it’s actually called backstretch not backside.

Second, as for classy, it depends on the person or barn. Most racehorses that run well are said to have “heart” or “guts” not “classy”. Such give all horses were and sometimes still are referred to as real working men’s horses because they’re go, go, go and don’t quit.
Classy can just as easily mean it’s a showy horse (acting up in the paddock, etc.) or a nice mannered/easy handler. It, to me, actually doesn’t say much about it’s racing ability.

Third, as for being from well known stallions that’s half the equation. They had to have mothers too. And there are ‘well known’ stallions whose reputation comes from their impressive ancestry and so they are bred often but their ability either isn’t proven or mediocre in relation.

Fourth the chestnut ran a claimer. Okay. At what price? People sometimes, particularly those with no prior racing experience, make the misconception that claimer races are meant for broken down / animals going nowhere when that isn’t exactly or always the case. Even horses like Maximum Security were in claiming races.

What the?

[Laurierace]

If someone told me they were going to the backstretch to feed the horses I would look at them like they had three heads. In no way is backstretch what you call the barns where the horses are housed. No offense but your correction is incorrect.

[smoofox]

???
Backside IS correct. The definition of classy as per posters in this thread IS correct - and has nothing to do with being “showy” or acting up in the paddock.

[FrenchLady]

@Where'sMyWhite

I’ve always heard the stable area being referred to as the backside. To me, backstretch is the straight part of the track opposite the home stretch…

No offense where. Fair tracks no one’s heard of?

I grew up around tracks from California to New York to Florida. Major tracks like Gulfstream. And in the UK. Third generation btw

Now google Belmont backside images and both images and info is barely worth note. Google Belmont backstretch (the proper term) and you’ll be okay not just with images but with actual articles pretaining to the right location like below.

https://www.paulickreport.com/news/the-biz/nyra-completes-new-100-resident-building-on-belmont-backstretch/

[FrenchLady]

@Cammie

The stabling area is “the backside”. At least at TB tracks in the Us

No offense where. Fair tracks no one’s heard of?

I grew up around tracks from California to New York to Florida. Major tracks like Gulfstream. And in the UK. Third generation btw

Now google Belmont backside images and both images and info is barely worth note. Google Belmont backstretch (the proper term) and you’ll be okay not just with images but with actual articles pretaining to the right location like below.

https://www.paulickreport.com/news/t…t-backstretch/

[Sparrowette]

@FrenchLady

No offense where. Fair tracks no one’s heard of?

I grew up around tracks from California to New York to Florida. Major tracks like Gulfstream. And in the UK. Third generation btw

Now google Belmont backside images and both images and info is barely worth note. Google Belmont backstretch (the proper term) and you’ll be okay not just with images but with actual articles pretaining to the right location like below.

https://www.paulickreport.com/news/t…t-backstretch/

Frenchlady, maybe it’s just the folks you’ve been around. But from this thread, I’d suggest that you expand your vocabulary just a tad. Everyone here can’t be wrong, and you’re the only correct person, AND you’re not the only person here who has been at a major track or two. That line about “Fair tracks” was a bit insulting to those here who may know a bit more than you.

[Pronzini]

@FrenchLady

No offense where. Fair tracks no one’s heard of?

I grew up around tracks from California to New York to Florida. Major tracks like Gulfstream. And in the UK. Third generation btw

Now google Belmont backside images and both images and info is barely worth note. Google Belmont backstretch (the proper term) and you’ll be okay not just with images but with actual articles pretaining to the right location like below.

https://www.paulickreport.com/news/the-biz/nyra-completes-new-100-resident-building-on-belmont-backstretch/

Is there an Urban Dictionary of racing I am not aware of? I’m not third generation anything but I have been licensed as an owner in several states, including Florida, New York and California and I’ve heard the term backside. It’s a vernacular for the barn area at a racetrack.

Google that.

https://www.google.com/search?q=backside+and+race+track&oq=backside+and+race+track&aqs=chrome..69i57j33.7263j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[Where_sMyWhite]

At least I am in the incorrect majority

[Cammie]

@FrenchLady

No offense where. Fair tracks no one’s heard of?

I grew up around tracks from California to New York to Florida. Major tracks like Gulfstream. And in the UK. Third generation btw

Now google Belmont backside images and both images and info is barely worth note. Google Belmont backstretch (the proper term) and you’ll be okay not just with images but with actual articles pretaining to the right location like below.

https://www.paulickreport.com/news/t…t-backstretch/

Take a moment and Google “racetrack backside” yourself. You’ll come up with just as many articles referring to the backside. No offense. :rolleyes:

I haven’t had the pleasure of the fair circuit, but I’m pretty sure Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Pimlico are considered to be “major tracks”. Spent plenty of time at Charles Town, Mountaineer Park, Laurel and Bowie on the lesser end of the spectrum. Backside absolutely is a a correct term that is used at all of them.

[Laurierace]

Good lord FrenchLady, tone it down a little and admit you were at the very least over dramatic and at best incorrect yourself on your correction. The old more flies with honey than vinegar thing. I have been a licensed trainer in seven states for over 20 years if that counts for anything in your book.

[Scribbler]

Speaking as someone with a professional interest in the English language, its important to remember there are lots of regional variations in terms for things in North America, and for fairly obscure activities like horses there is not necessarily any stable dictionary authority.

The back stretch versus backside debate is presumably a regional variation, as also the use of the word classy.

Other horse terms that pop up on COTH for debate include whether sorrel and chestnut are the same color, and how you spell and conjugate the French loan word “longe line.” Lunging, longing, longeing?

I took a very plain basic compact station wagon to a mechanic for a PPE in Tennessee and he said “oh that’s pretty” meaning in good clean shape, a phrase I quite liked but never heard used for that before.

If I wasn’t sure about how someone was using a regional phrase, I might follow up with “so what do you really like about this horse then?”

[smoofox]

FrenchLady - you are undoubtedly right. None of the rest of us know a damn thing about racing - even after decades. We have never been to the backside or the backstretch. We have only been to a few bush league fair ground tracks where we just hung on the rail, made a couple of bets on $1500 claimers and belted down a few brewskis. We know nothing about anything. Got it.

Re: terminology…

I have a Facebook “friend” who discovered racing about 3 years ago and was suddenly an expert. She even moved to California and was supposedly working for “top trainers”. There is no way anyone would want her to do anything more than muck stalls - and she would be fired because she has no work ethic and would be tooooo slow. Ask me how I know. But anyway… suddenly she would post about how Mike Smith waved at her or said hello or how Bob Baffert complimented her as they recognized her unique equine abilities. I have ridden with her and seen her around a barn. Her horsemanship skills and horse sense are limited.

She posted that her current trainer “from NYC” had “loaned” her to Bill Mott because she was so good to “do hot walking and paddocking” before a big race - and we should all watch for her on TVG HWing in the paddock and helping Mott with his top horse (eyeroll) before the Grade A (her words) 7th race. She also announced that she was hot walking full-time for Doug O’Neill after that as he had specifically requested her… and we could see her in the paddock before every race with his horses.

Uh huh.

Yeeeahh right.

I guarantee none of those guys ever hired her to lay a hand on their top horses and do actual hot walking. And I have a suspicion that she would be on security watch lists.

And there is no way in hell that that girl would ever be on the backside/backstretch/shedrow/whatever before about 10:00 am. If that.

[dressagetraks]

Here’s an official ad for the backside tours at Churchill Downs, hardly a backwoods, tiny fairground track.

https://www.derbymuseum.org/plan-a-visit/tours/Barn%20and%20Backside%20Van%20Tour

I know little compared to the credentials of a lot of folks here, but I have always heard that the backside is the stabling area and the backstretch is the straight part of the track on the opposite side from the homestretch.

[LaurieB]

@FrenchLady

No offense where. Fair tracks no one’s heard of?

Yes, fair tracks–like Churchill Downs whose backside I was on this morning. :lol:

[Where_sMyWhite]

Because I often, not always, try to research before inserting my foot in my mouth, I did some searching via Google and came across this

https://www1.drf.com/help/help_glossary.html

BACKSTRETCH- Straight of far side of track between the turns. Also stable area.

BACKSIDE- Stable area

Apparently for DRF, backstretch could be either the far side of the track or the stable area while backside is the stable area.

I’m thinking the Daily Racing Form does more than hang out at fair tracks :lol:

[Houndhill]

I must say, hats off to you ladies. You totally owned the “backsplaining” individual. Well done.

[Libby2563]

Here’s me sitting on my backside, reading to the end of this thread and still hoping for pics of OP’s classy new horse!

[Baboo]

Me too, Libby!