Flat Racing in Great Britain
In Great Britain, (and the majority of Europe) flat racing is split into two distinctive bands, conditions races and handicaps.
- Conditions races are further split into:
- Pattern races
- Group 1 - (Classics and other races of major international importance)
- Group 2 - (less important international races)
- Group 3 - (primarily domestic races)
- Listed races - have less prestige than the group races but are still more important than handicaps.
- Pattern races
- Handicap races - where the Jockey Club official handicapper gives horses a different weight to carry according to their ability, are the bread and butter daily races although some of these are also quite prestigious.
Classic Races - In British horse racing, The Classics are a series of horse races run over the flat (i.e. without jumps). Each classic is run once each year and is restricted to horses that are three years old; two of them are further restricted to fillies only. There are five Classic races:
- 2,000 Guineas Stakes
- 1,000 Guineas Stakes
- Epsom Oaks
- Epsom Derby
- St. Leger Stakes
Read more about this topic: Flat Racing
Famous quotes containing the words flat, racing and/or britain:
“riding flatcars to Fresno,
Across the whole country
Steep towns, flat towns, even New York,
And oceans and Europe & libraries & galleries
And the factories they make rubbers in”
—Gary Snyder (b. 1930)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I’ th’ world’s volume
Our Britain seems as of it, but not in’ t;
In a great pool a swan’s nest.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)