I just heard a commentator say that they don’t use lead ponies in France. They didn’t use them at Royal Ascot in England last year either.
Why do we use them in the US?
I could also ask why we race on dirt instead of turf for most races here, but I’ll just stick to the one topic for this thread.
Our horses are more out of control.
Can’t say that about Justify - he was a model of calmness and manners.
With his pony.
Multiple reasons. Unlike England, we didn’t have established tracks during the infancy of the country, so much racing occurred on dirt roadways or in ovals created on people’s land, which were worn down to the dirt quickly. The dirt caught on because it was faster. And then in our desire to be independent from England, I’ve heard that our founding horse racing fathers deliberately tried to do things differently. For example, counterclockwise racing was established in the US around the time of the revolution in direct opposition of the clockwise racing in England.
The early use of the starting gate in the USA had a bit to do with it – all that milling around behind the gate while horses are loaded is easier/safer/faster with ponies + more races could be put on the card; no time wasted with fractious or out of control horses + the USA loads horses in order of post position without exception so again pony helps with the waiting.
Since England didn’t use starting gates until the mid 60’s, tradition has held on = horses weren’t/aren’t stabled at the track and thus go out to the gallops every day under their their own steam – no pony – so race day is par for the course. Same in France.
Certainly multiple reasons as Texarkana said. Tradition vs necessity vs purity…and Americans do love a post parade.
There are more loose horses on post parade, and “runaways” on post parade requiring scratching when lead ponies are not used. These instances are seen in Europe more often than in North America, because of the use of lead ponies in N. A. The presence of a calm lead pony has a calming effect on many horses on their way to the starting gate. Not all horses do require a lead pony, but the presence of one usually does no harm, and may help keep everyone safe and calm and delivered to the starting gate in one piece and intact, which is always a bonus. One often sees a human “handler” heading out on North American tracks with the horse from Europe (being a human lead pony), to try to lead them past the crowd on the first part of post parade, before turning them loose to gallop after making the turn. When this is done, the horse is often side stepping, and not straight, upset, and far more likely to step on himself or injure himself doing this than if he was beside a lead pony. (A good pony rider always keeps his race horse’s body and neck straight beside the pony). The use of a lead pony to do this would be a lot safer for everyone IMO, but some people are bull headed and want to stick to “tradition” rather than take on an idea that did not originate in their own country. Their horses and their owners pay the price of that decision.
A race horse who is introduced to being with a lead pony generally “likes” the pony, and goes directly to the pony by choice when he comes out of the paddock. The pony is his security blanket under stressful situations. Their use is a huge bonus to many race horses.
In Europe only certain races have parades before the start. As the horses are not trained at the race course perhaps they don’t get so excited and anticipate a race? Certainly, the canter down to the start is usually controlled and run aways are rare. Some horses are given special permission to go down to the gate quietly before the others in the race if they are known to be difficult.
Most European tracks have a parade ring, and the horses are walked around the ring for a very long time by their grooms prior to being saddled.
Most European courses are not ovals like ours, so the horses go onto the track and may go nowhere near the grandstand or finish line, and they don’t really know where the finish line is, like they do with a US oval track.
Since they hack out to the gallops to train, they are familiar with a nice hack prior to actually stretching their legs. And the European jockeys are familiar with a nice hack too. US jocks are superb race riders, but not many of them do much hacking; they usually get escorted to and from the track by a groom or pony once they stop being exercise riders and only ride races.
If I could time travel, I’d go back to my 20s and go overseas and get a job at one of the wonderful European training centers as an exercise rider.
Tradition and practicality given the layout of Euro tracks verses over here. It doesn’t mean much over all, just is what it is. Neither right or wrong. Some of the European shippers don’t use a Pony in the post parade, though there is often one a few yards away, especially with huge crowds in stands just yards away from the horses.
Insurance?? Also they don’t use tongue-ties.
My aunt has a huge amount of racehorse magazines from the early - mid 1970’s stored in a trunk: turf and horses sports? Something like that? Anyone recall that?
Also four of these really large 1970/80 mags, can’t remember the name (went defunct) but it had gorgeous pix of racehorses & some others.
European tracks are far roomier and many over there have huge, horse oriented training spaces available. Not the case for many here. It’s just different
I’ve heard that one a lot, but it doesn’t make sense given that the racesourses in gb and ireland are about evenly divided between clockwise and counterclockwise, and some of the oldest and most famous races, the Derby and St Leger being two prime examples, are run right handed just like in the US.
One other reason for no lead ponies is that you’d have double the amount of hooves on turf courses, esp with the large fields they often have.
Imagine the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot, usually has 30 or so runners, you’d have 60 horses heading off down the course to the straight mile start. Or the Cesarwitch at Newmarket, 30+ runners, and the starting gate of that 2m2f race is in a different county than the finish line. Actually, that would be a sight to behold, that many horses heading off into the distance.
Left handed? They turn only left over here.
Yes, sorry, momentary directional dyslexia.
Derby and St Leger, both almost pre date the US as a country, are run left handed or counterclockwise.
I’ll admit I’ve had a degree of skepticism about the story, too, only because I don’t believe England had traditional “ovals” during Revolutionary times, either.
But… that’s the story:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2010/04/the_mane_event.html
William Whitley, a Virginian who settled in Kentucky in the 1770s, built the region’s first racetrack in the territory near his estate. (According to tradition, Whitley also decided that American horses would race counterclockwise—a form of protest against England, where horses run clockwise.)
Of course, the Epson Derby and St Leger didn’t exist until the late 1770s, so it’s likely they were not ever on Whitley’s radar when he was “sticking it to the man.” :lol:
Another thought: the races held in England up to the late 18th century were over long distances, four or more miles, and run in heats so that the winning horse might have run an enormous distance in a day. The owners and trainers often galloped alongside to watch the race (a bit like modern camel racing in the Gulf) so a pony would have been redundant. The race courses, such as Newmarket, Epsom, York, Doncaster were, and still are, located on open grassland (hence ‘downs’). The ‘park’ courses, which are generally sort of circular and enclosed, were a 19th century invention, located close to cities, when racing became a mass sport and hoards of people arrived by train to watch from a grandstand. By which time, perhaps, no one saw a need to pony the racehorses.
Chester racecourse (1m 1f) in England was established in 1533 and runs left handed,
GB flat racing left handed;
Ayr
Bath
Brighton
Catterick
Chepstow
Chester
Doncaster
Epsom
Ffos Las
Yarmouth
Haydock
Lingfield
Newbury
Nottingham
Pontefract
Redcar
Southwell
Thirsk
Wolverhampton
Warwick
York
Flat racing right handed;
Ascot
Beverley
Carlisle
Folkestone
Goodwood
Hamilton Park
Kempton
Leicester
Musselburgh
Newmarket (Rowley Mile + July Course)
Ripon
Sailsbury
Sandown Park
Windsor
European horses are just better broke. Thankfully, in Newmarket there are now more horse paths and crosswalks but when I briefly rode in Lambourn in 1976, we rode totally on the roads on the days when we didn’t gallop. Unlike the backstretch in the US, the English horses hack to whichever gallops are open that day. At the track, they are not expected to do a post parade but gallop on past the stands to the starting gate. Training in the US is much more compressed and a bit chaotic, with horses going every which way and the post parade is a tough this to expect them to handle at a walk on their own.
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