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Silks, designs & owners

Did a quick google search & on here, didn’t find what I was looking for.

Is there a way to see a list/images of what silks belong to which owner(s)?

Not that I’m aware of. I don’t think anyone keeps track of that.

Silks need to be registered if an owner wants to race in New York, but other than that, pretty much anything goes.

So silks don’t need to be registered through the JC?
Thanks.

Not in the United States. I believe they do in the U.K.

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A couple more questions :grin:
Since there isn’t a single registry for silk colors/design, what happens if there are duplicate silks?

What happens if there’s duplicate silks (different owners) in a race?
Or is this something that doesn’t ever happen?

Thanks. The info behind choosing colors & designs is interesting to me.

Silks don’t identify the horse, the saddle towel and jockey’s armband does so it wouldn’t matter if there were silks that looked the same in a race. Tracks have their own house silks that can be used when the owner’s silks are unavailable for whatever reason. They literally are exactly the same as the track may have 3-4 sets made. I have seen a race with two horses wearing house silks before, it’s no big deal.

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With thousands of silks and many fewer entrants in a race, I don’t know if that’s ever happened. (Same silks, different owners).

When the same owner has two horses in a race, the jockeys wear different color caps. That’s also done when 2 jockeys wear “house silks” in a race.

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[/quote]
With thousands of silks and many fewer entrants in a race, I don’t know if that’s ever happened. (Same silks, different owners).

When the same owner has two horses in a race, the jockeys wear different color caps. That’s also done when 2 jockeys wear “house silks” in a race.
[/quote]

I knew about the different color caps for horses running under the same owner.
That’s what made me wonder about two owners having the same silks. I guess the odds are pretty slim it would ever happen :woman_shrugging:t2::grin:
Did not know about the house silks. That’s interesting.

Thanks for taking the time to indulge my questions

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You’re welcome.

Funny story about house silks. You often see horses running in them at Saratoga because it’s a real pain to get your silks approved in NY (and it costs $$$ to register them) so it’s not unusual for owners to ship in a good horse for a race or two there and not go through the bother. There was one big owner whose silks approval got held up, so his first runner at SAR ran in house silks and won. He decided those were his lucky silks, so he just kept running in them. After half a dozen races, the racing office told him to cut it out and register his own silks or they would fine him. He said that the house silks were his lucky silks and he would rather just keep using them and pay the fine every time he ran a horse. :smiley:

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UK racing is regulated by one authority. Silks identify the owner and are unique to that individual or syndicate. To avoid raceday confusion, duplicate colours are not allowed. If the owner has more than one horse running, the jockeys’ cap silks vary. Silks can be registered, for not much money, even if you haven’t got a horse to race. Some people maintain their family colours through several generations and they come and go according to family interest and fortune. Very old family colours tend to be solid, such as Lord Derby’s ‘black with a white cap’ first used in 1788 and carried to great acclaim by Ouija Board owned and bred by the 19th Lord Derby. Many silks have fascinating histories.

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That brings back memories of when I raced some horses at Birmingham - before they just screwed horse racing up and the track is now just decimated! I found a company that made the shirts and caps in The Blood Horse - sent them my colors and design and voila’ – they came to the Racing Secretary’s office I think and went to the Jockey’s Room. Very exciting! I still have the cap cover somewhere, but once the track closed, someone made off with my shirt - I was MAJOR PISSED! They were pretty - crimson and silver in a diamond pattern. Those were some good times!

On Horse Racing Nation, some of the horse profiles show a graphic of what the owner’s silks look like. Here’s an example where the profile for a horse of ours shows our silks design:

https://www.horseracingnation.com/search.aspx?sval=rock%20out

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